Davis, CA
Allopathic Medical Schools | Public Non-Profit
Overall, applicants ranked the school in the top 20% of interviews, indicating it is highly regarded. They found the interview mixed with a low stress level, and felt they did okay.
⭐ Overall Impressions ▼
How did the interview impress you?
Most respondents felt positively about their interview.
What was the stress level of the interview?
Most respondents rated their interview as low stress.
How you think you did?
Most respondents thought they performed well at the interview.
How do you rank this school among ALL other schools?
Most respondents rank this school above all other schools.
How do you rank this school among other schools to which you've applied?
Most respondents rank this school above other schools they applied to.
0 = Below, 10 = Above
💬 Interview Questions ▼
What is one of the specific questions they asked you?
The most commonly asked interview questions at medical schools include inquiries about the motivation for pursuing medicine, challenges anticipated in medical school, experiences that influenced the decision to become a doctor, ethical dilemmas, strengths and weaknesses, and specific interests in the field. Many respondents mentioned undergoing an MMI format interview where they signed nondisclosure agreements, with questions focusing on role-play scenarios, teamwork, stress management, healthcare debates, and personal background.
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signed an NDA
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UC Davis conducts the MMI; as such, interviewees sign a confidentiality agreement.
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mmi scenario- informal chat with the dean
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mmi scenario- role play
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mmi scenario- team work station
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MMI
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you sign an agreement not to discuss specifics of their MMI format
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It was an MMI interview.
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Under obligation not to discuss.
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Lots of follow-up/grilling about my response to the questions above.
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Tell me about yourself.
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Why do you want to be a doctor? internist?
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What do you think will be most challenging about medical school? about being a doctor?
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Why did you take the mcat twice?
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Are you sure you know what you are getting into? How do you know?
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What do you do when you are stressed? (Medical Student)
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Why Davis? Why medicine?
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Tell me about _____________ on your application
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Why Davis?
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How do you handle stress?
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Specific to application and interests.
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What do you like about UC Davis?
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Why medicine?
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Why do you want to be a doctor?
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Are you following the healthcare debates, what do you feel?
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what do you do for fun?
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Tell me about what you learned from X clinical experience
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Which LOR best explains why you'll be a good physician
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Why did you choose to do X
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Tell me about your family/where you grew up/high school/college?
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Why UC Davis? Why did you decide to become a doctor?
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Faculty Interviewer: Why medicine? Why UC Davis? What are your hobbies? What are your medical interests? What are your thoughts on health policy? Do you have any concerns with studying after taking a few years off? Several other questions specific to my primary and secondary applications.
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I also had opportunities to ask quite a few of my own questions during the interviews. Come prepared to ask at least several.
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Student Interviewer: Why medicine? Why UC Davis? Do you want to live in the Sacramento area? What do you do for fun or to relax? A bunch of questions specific to my primary and secondary applications.
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What would you want me to communicate to the admissions committee about you?
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Why UC Davis? What specifically attracted you to the school?
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Faculty: Tell me about yourself
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Faculty: What was it like growing up in ___? How did you decide on going to (my undergraduate college)?
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Faculty: What's your vision for your medical career?
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How do you give/receive feedback?
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Mostly conversational(told me about herself and I did the same
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Talked about what life in Sacramento would be like
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How will you cope in medical school?
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What is the happiest moment in your life? What is the worst moment in your life?
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What would you do to change Canada's healthcare?
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Because medical school is an extremely difficult process, how have you prepared for the challenges?
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How would you fix the healthcare system?
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Where else have you applied?
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Faculty Interview: Tell me about yourself. Asked me follow up questions about several things as I gave my answer. Can you tell me more about this specific event? What is your career goal and how will you change the current health care system? Do you have any questions for me?
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Student Interview: Talked for a very long time about similarities. Can you tell me more about this specific hobby? How did you feel about this volunteer experience? Who would you consider to be the most influential person in your life? What is the biggest problem in health care right now? What are you looking for in a medical school? Do you have any other questions for me?
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How would you change healthcare in the US for the better?
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Tell me about your family.
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Why is Kaiser different from other HMO's?
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role you play in your family
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what do u do now (degree in 2005)
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why Davis? What can you offer us?
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about my AMCAS experiences and background. warm up questions.
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ethical questions like euthenasia, stem cell, and abortion. I lost my smile at this point and I rambled a lot.
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Tell me about a humbling experience.
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Tell me about your folks.
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How do you feel about physician assisted suicide?
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What do you do for fun
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What do you want to talk about
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Do you really want to come to Davis?
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What clinical experience stood out in your mind as most formidable.
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Why medicine rather than other healthcare professions?
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talk about team work
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tell me about yourself
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why medicine
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Why Davis, all pretty typical.
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why do you want to be a doctor?
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What did you learn from experience X on your application?
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What would your mom say about you? Your Dad? Your sister?
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You have a tremendous amount of research experience. Why didn't you go for a PhD?
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strenghts/weaknesses
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What is wrong with health care today
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What do you think the biggest problem facing the medical field today?
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Why your major?
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How do I get my current job?
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Why UCD?
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Tell me about yourself?
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What was the weakest point of your application? (OH! Interviews are almost always open, but my interviewers didn't read my file, so they did it blind)
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What was your MCAT score?
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were you accepted elsewhere?
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what do you think is the biggest problem facing health care right now?
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where do you see yourself in 10 years?
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Tell me about this AMCAS experience.
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Tell me about your research.
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What is the biggest problem in healthcare today, and how will you deal with it.
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see above
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An 80 year old fresh out of heart surgery and an 18 year old who came into the ER with an infection secondary to chemo for leukemia both need the same ICU bed. Who gets it?
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Tell me about yourself. (student interview)
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What kind of people do you get along with?
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do you have any questions for me
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Tell me about x AMCAS activity
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What are the biggest problems in healthcare?
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What are your career goals as a doctor?
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Ethical question: two people needing the same ICU bed, which one do you let in?
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Have you thought of a specialty?
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What kind of studier are you?
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What do you want out of life?
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Ethical questions - both student and faculty asked these
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Specific questions about my application. (They really thought them through)
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Why medicine/why Davis? What are you going to do if you're not accepted?
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An 80 yr old man is in hospice care. He's more or less at the end of his life. However, he's under much pain and drugs are having no effect. He no longer desires to live and his living family agrees. What do you do?
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It looks like you're very interested in X (not related to medicine). Why don't you pursue that instead?
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What's your biggest fear regarding medical school?
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a bunch of ethicals, some of which were very easy, and one which was impossible.
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what was your best/worst learning experience and why? how would your friends/classmates describe your or say are your best and worst qualities...
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what's the biggest problem in medicine, why medicine, why davis and other typicals.
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Because I haven't read your file yet, is there anything that you would like to bring up or explain in your file that you feel you would like the admissions committee to know?
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What was your best/worst leadership experience/group experience/learning experience.
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Why medicine, what are your goals, tell me about yourself.
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(not the third question) What is the biggest problem facing the health care industry today...how would you fix it?
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After we exchanged pleasantries.... I noticed on your transcript that you changed majors...why?
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Describe (X) experience to me.
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How well did you know your PI's in each lab?
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If I asked your Bio I partner what would make you a good doctor, what would they say? (also, would not make me a good doctor)
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(Ethical One): You perscribe a patient penicillin and later in the day, after they have had a few doses already, a nurse catches that the patient is allergic to penicillin. Nothing happens to the patient and they are perfectly fine. Do you tell the patient about the mistake you made or not?
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If there was one thing on your application that you wanted to make sure I presented to the admissions committee, what would it be?
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What do you think makes a good leader?
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what type of people do you get along/dont get along with?
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why medicne over any other profession?
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How would your friends describe you?
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What was your best/worst learning experience?
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Why medicine, and why UCD?
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What are you looking for in a med school?
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What are your concerns about medical school?
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My thoughts on making morning after pill (Plan B) OTC
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Scenario question
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What kind of health care system I could envision working in replace of the current system?
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Advantages of being a non-trad student?
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Challenges of being a non-trad student?
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So tell me about yourself.
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How do you deal with stress?
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What are some leadership qualities?
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What was a good educational experience? What was a bad one?
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What would a friend say are your strengths and weaknesses? What would a lab partner say?
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Why do you think Americans are into alternative medicine?
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Suppose you give a patient the wrong medicine with no ill-consequence...do you tell them about it?
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Tell me about x from my application...a nice question that basically just got us talking.
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Do you think a doctor is like an airplane pilot? (A good answer: no, they're not. When a pilot makes a mistake, both passenger and pilot perish; but when the doctor makes a mistake, only the patient dies.)
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What if medicine doesn't work out?
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Where do you see yourself in ten years?
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how did growing up overseas influence you?
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how did you choose your undergrad school?
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standard hypothetical involving antibiotic administration to an allergic patient
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forget the auperficial things, what really draw you into medicine?
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What do you want in life?
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what would be a challenge for you in med sch?
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Elaborate on some personal experiences that made you decide to become a doctor.
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If you had a lab partner, what would he/she say your biggest fault was.
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Name your strengths/weaknesses. Five words to describe yourself.
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Tell me about this one reagent you used in your research.
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What is one experience where you did not get along with someone else?
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Please tell me more about your school as I am unfamiliar with the institution (I go to a small school in Louisiana).
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Student interviewer: What book are you reading, what do you think about alternative medicine, name one ethical dilemma you faced and what did you decide to do...?
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What field of medicine are you interested in and what clinical experiences do you have in that area.
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Tell me a little about yourself and where you grew up. (With the exception of the ehtical questions above, both my interviews were conversational and focused on specific parts of my application and essays.)
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best learning experience
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where do you see yourself in 20 years?
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worst learning experience
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What do you look for in a medical school?
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Why did you choose your undergraduate institute?
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If there was a kid and an older person and one was...oh heck I don't even remember...just be prepared for some sort of situational ethical q.
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What do you do in your spare time?
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Why do you want to be a doctor
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Tell me more about XX in your application...
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What book are you reading?
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What makes a good team?
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How would you solve this problem?
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What's the biggest problem in healthcare?
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If you could pick an area of medicine right now, what area would you choose and why?
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What do you think about Dr.'s wearing white coats?
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What other schools did you apply to? (actually list some)
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Do you have any allergies? (for real!; it is Davis and very rural-like up here))
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Why UCD-SOM?
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What do you know about UC-Davis (i.e. what do you know about the student-run community clinics)? What kind of research is UC-Davis known for?
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What kind of extracurricular activities were you involved in as a college student where you interacted with others?
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All other usual stuff.... About my background, life, research, interests, cultural differences...
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Ethical question: Would you tell the patient if you prescribe the medication that he/she was alergic to? Why?
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How would people in the lab describe you? Your strengths and weaknesses...
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What do you think you would contribute to the Davis medical community?
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What would you friends say are good and bad qualities about you?
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Why do you want to go into medicine?
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How has your clinical experienced influence your decision to become a doctor?
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Tell me about yourself... (They use this question as a starting point so they can ask other questions that build on what you tell them - so talk about something that you want them to question you about
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What's the biggest health care problem today? (AND how would you solve it?) They asked quite a few AND how would you solve this type questions (to see how you think I guess - the interviewer kept saying there is no right answer...)
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What's your first choice med school? (Be honest - they can see right through you)
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The Hmong coining question: is a painful home remedy child abuse?
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What were your most meaningful ECs during college?
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How has your family background influenced your decision to become a physician?
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How would your best friend describe you? How would an enemy describe you?
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What are some of the qualities of a good leader and give an example of a leader?
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What would a friend/lab partner describe as your best/worst qualities?
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Why Davis? Why medicine? What would you bring to the Davis medical school community? How do you envision your career in medicine?
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There were not clear cut questions, just conversation.
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If you had given your patient the wrong medication will you tell the patient?
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If you saw someone else give the patient the wrong medication will you tell the patient?
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How would you lab partner describe you?
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What are your strengths and weaknesses?
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What don't you like about the current practice of medicine?
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Tell me about your research
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Tell me how your lab partner would describe you.
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What was your worst course you took in college?
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How did you decide to go into medicine?
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Describe a good and bad learning experience, a good and bad teamwork experience. What traits does a good leader have and describe how someone in the public eye has these.
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How do you feel about universal health care? Tell me more about the recent Medicare bill. Give me an overview of your research.
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Tell me about yourself. Why medicine? Why Davis? How would a lab partner describe your strengths and weaknesses? What concerns do you have about medical school?
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Do you think doctors in the same field that make more money try as hard as the doctors that make a lesser amount knowing that whatever the result of the operation, they will not get reprimanded and be paid?
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Tell me about yourself. How come your first semester grades are so bad? Who do you hate and why?
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Why do you think doctors wear white coats and is it necessary? Why Davis over the other potential choices you have? There are a lot others since mine interviews for at least 90 minutes but I can't remember them all.
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I got the question about the 80 yr old and 18 yr old in the ICU with one bed. Who would you give it to?
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look above.
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They did't really ask me too many specific questions. I just sat down, he said to tell me about myself...then he started spinning questions from off of that.
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Motivation for medicine?
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How would a friend describe your strengths and weaknesses?
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How would a lab partner describe you?
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What is the biggest problem facing health care today?
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How do you like your undergraduate school?
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Tell me about your family?
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A child and father come in to your office; the son has coin burns from an alternative medicine treatment of the father. What do you do?
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What do you think of UC-Davis?
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What's the greatest problem facing the US medical system?
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Tell me about your life?
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Why do you want to become a doctor?
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Why should we pick you?
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Why UC Davis?
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Would you tell a patient that you had given them the wrong medicine?
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Tell me about yourself and your family.
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Why did you major in xyz?
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Why do you want to go to Davis? The questions are really quite typical and apparently the interviews which include a faculty and second-year student have a list of standard questions to ask. Applicants interviewing should not be too concerned.
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If a 44-yr old drunk driver kills two people, does he deserve rehab or time in prison.
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Tell me about yourself. What experience have you learned the most from?
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What would you tell a lady who refuses to get her child vaccinated? What would you do about the econmic problems in the health care system?
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The one about the two people coming to the ICU.
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What are your concerns about entering the medical profession? If you don't have any then you are a liar (my words not theirs)
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Ethics Question: A patient is give penicillin, even though he is allergic to such medication. He has already taken two doses by the time the nurse discovers the mistake. The patient is not exhibiting any complications. Should the patient be told about the mistake?
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What has been your best and worst learning experience?
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What is a challenge or adversity you have faced? And how did you overcome it?
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Last book you read, favorite book
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Two ethical questions, one asked by each interviewer: 1. A 44 year old man kills a 13 year old girl in a drunk driving accident. Does the man deserve to be sent to prison or treated as a medical disease and rehabilitated? 2. A girl has burns on her neck from a cultural remedy used by her father to cure pain. Do you think this is child abuse?
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What would you change about medicine
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What is your leadership experience?
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What one thing would you change in medicine?
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How would your friends describe you? How would your lab partners describe you?
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What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
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How will you handle the volume of material in medical school? What study strategies will you use? (student interviewer)
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Mostly it was just a natural, flowing conversation.
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What specialty (or FP) do you think you might be interested in?
What was the most interesting question?
Students said the most interesting question asked at University of California Davis School of Medicine discussed a wide range of topics, including personal challenges in pursuing medicine, ethical dilemmas, family influences, and scenarios involving patient care. The interview format may have been an MMI (Multiple Mini Interview) based on references to nondisclosure agreements, with questions touching on ethics, patient scenarios, motivations for medicine, and personal attributes.
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signed an NDA
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What was on of your biggest challenges during your path to medicine?
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I was asked something directly from my application even though I thought I was told it was closed file.
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you sign an agreement not to discuss specifics of their MMI format
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Under obligation not to discuss.
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Several ethics questions about mentally disabled patients and patients with poor prognosis.
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What would you want the world to know about (my field/job)?
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What experience do you have with the difficulties of being a doctor?
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Nothing out of the ordinary. Just talked about my story, very conversational.
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what do your parents think about your ambitions and the path you've taken to get here
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How would your sister describe you (negatively, positively)?
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Student Interviewer: What do you have to offer UC Davis?
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How are human patients treated differently from animal patients in veterinary medicine?
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How does the program you work for admit its students? (Interesting only because he was actually interested.)
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How do you give/receive feedback?
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If you weren't going into medicine, what would you be? (i.e. florist as the interviewer's example response)
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Not so much a question, but both interviewers suggested I go elsewhere at some point, although I don't think they were trying to be discouraging.
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There was none.
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What's your favorite book and why?
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Tell me about a humbling experience
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What does your fiance want to do when she graduates?
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How will your religion influence your medical career?
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What study habits will you have to change once you come to Davis?
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how do you fix health care system?
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Two patients need to be intubated, but there's only room for one more, what do you do?
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Of the 5000 appliants that applied, why you, what makes you different?
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Do you consider a child with bruises caused by traditional medicine child abuse?
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Why Davis?
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Why medicine? Why not psychology ... relating to my life experience....
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What was a challenge you had to overcome? (surprised myself with this answer)
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How would you, as a physician, get someone to change their unhealthy behavior?
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what do you think about plastination? (we were talking about body worlds)
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How has growing up in a diverse city and going to a diverse college affected you?
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What was your worst learning experience? What do you look for in a team/ leader? What would your chem/ o-chem lab partner say about you?
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How would you describe your sense of humor?
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What do you think your motivations are for being interested in primary care? How will you stay motivated with the challenges that come with being a physician?
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How did you deal with a given school conflict?
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How do you deal with the stress of your work?
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Why med and not teaching?
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What are the biggest problems in healthcare?
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Ethical question
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describe your sense of humor. (i think that's the strangest question i've had in an interview.)
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I can see that faith/religion is very important to you, how do you feel about the Benitez case (Supreme court case about a physcian refusing to artificially inseminate a homosexual women) how will your faith affect your decisions and professionalism in medicine.
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Is a physician allowed to refuse treatment to a non-emergent patient if they are religiously opposed to it? (specifically in-vitro fertilization, we had a long discussion about it)
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If I called your mom and asked her why she thinks you'll be a good doctor, what would she say?
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since med school will slowly take over your life, what activities will you try to maintain in med school?
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Should doctors and med student wear the same white coat?
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in reference to my application- "did I notice a mental health situation in Nigeria?"
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How do you handle professional frustration?
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A scenario question involving a drunk driver that killed a mom and daughter, is his problem criminal or medical?
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Questions about cultural competence in medicine-proof that this school really "gets it" about the importance of this especially in primary care.
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why medicine and why now? (I'm a non-traditional applicant)
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When you were faced with a difficulty, what made you stronger and not back away?
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Why would you pick UC Davis above a school like UCLA? As in, what is the most important factor to you in choosing a medical school. (My interviewer wanted to know if location was a big issue, since my family's in LA)
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My MCAT scores while high, are highest in reading, can you explain why you're a good candidate for medical school, rather than say grad school.
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Unanswerable, almost philosophical questions! "What can we know about death before we die?" etc.
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I can't even remember. It was just a casual conversation.
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you've come through some hard things. what do you think made you able to cope with them, and how might you foster these qualities of yours in others?
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what do you want in life?
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How do you feel about Bush's policies? (I am of middle eastern decent, so it was appropriate to ask, since my family is involved)
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What is your favorite band?
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Besides young bright doctors, tell me what the field of medicine needs today and how you plan to make that happen.
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Suppose you had a patient who did not want to receive your care because s/he was racist and had a problem with your ethnicity. How would you respond? Would you treat this patient? Similarly, how would you respond to a patient who felt "entitled" to healtcare just because they had money? And how would you respond to this patient's requests for pricey procedures that are not medically necessary?
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since med students are the cream of the crop, many people who were used to being the best in class drop to being the worst. how would you handle that?
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see below.
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How important is coming back to California for you? (I go to school out-of-state).
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What is the biggest problem with medicine today?
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A nine-year-old child of a Jehovah's Witness family needs surgery. It will not be successful without transfusions, yet the family refuses them and will disown the child if you force the transfusion with a court order. How do you proceed?
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What's the biggest problem in healthcare?
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If a 4 y.o. boy comes into your office with an unknown illness, doesn't speak your language and there is no translator available.. how do you communicate with this child?
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How would you address the issue in America where health care is not universal compared to other countries such as Canada?
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As a medical student in a clerkship, if your physician supervisor accidently prescribes the wrong medication to a patient (which causes no harm to the patient), do you feel the patient should be informed? If your supervisor was unwilling to tell the patient, what would you do? If he asked you to communicate the error to the patient, what would you say (my interviewer made me roll play the situation by him being the patient and myself being the medical student)?
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The intervier asked me about my research and how is it relevant for medicine.
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What would you do if a you found burn marks on a child who was treated by her father using traditional methods?
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Standard questions
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all the questions were basic, standard, uninteresting - but i still loved the interview!
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In your opinion, is the world safer today than it was ten years ago? (not health-related, just in general)
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Don't you think having an obese population will benefit our nation if there ever was a bioterror or terror attack on our food supply?
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My interviewer asked me to, "Tell me about what heidegger thought of modern man". Then added, "I'm asking this for information, not as a quiz". I was a philosophy-molecular biology double major, so the question makes sense.
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How do you address the disparities in the health status and care of underserved populations?
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What was the worst learning experience you ever had and why?
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none really. pretty typical questions.
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How would you deal with a patient in need of urgent care because of a drunk driving accident he caused in which he killed a young pregnant woman and a child?
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How do you think the patient felt in this situation?
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They have these standardized questions that have been posted before...they make you think, so make sure you prepare beforehand
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You prescribed penicillin to a patient, but then a nurse tell you your patient is allergic to penicillin. Would you tell your patient about your error, even though he may have taken the medicine without any obvious adverse effects?
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Why do you think so many people turn to alternative medicine?
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Your writing score is ridiculously low...
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Tell me about your family.
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Is there any group of people you hate and why? If you had a patient who could not pay for treatment, would you treat them or how would you deal with this situation?
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Who do you hate the most and why?
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this is from my family. i have a family disease that runs in my family. i wanted my blood drawn to be tested for the gene that increases susceptibility to the disease, but isn't proven to cause the disease. he asked me if i, as a physician, would approve the test for my patients...we went over the ramifications of that. it was really chill...everything was perfect except for the fact that i really needed to take a crap and the interview ran over into an hour and a half.
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An 80-year-old transplant patient requires an ICU bed. At the same time a 17-year-old cancer patient requires an ICU bed due to improper mediication. Both are acutely ill and could die. Who would you give the bed to?
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Whether a man who killed a woman while driving drunk should be treated as a criminal or as a sick person.
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Teach me something about health economics
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The interviewers have a list of questions to ask; most of which are standard.
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They asked me the question about inadvertantly giving penicillin to a patient who is allergic and asking what I would do. They repeat their interview questions.
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Explain to me, some parts of your life?
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What was your worst experience that was a learning opportunity.
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What values have your learned from your parents?
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What would one of your biology lab partners (one who does not necesaarily like you) say your strenghts and weaknesses are?
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You run an ICU. Two patients are coming in and each needs a respirator. You only have one. One of the patients is a 40 year old man and the other is 19. Who do you give it to?
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How would you describe your sense humor?
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How would you contribute to the Davis medical community
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What do I think of alternative medicine?
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Staight foward interview questions for the most part. Mostly just dialog.
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How would one of your lab partners describe you?
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More of a "Tell me about yourself," interview. Questions pretty straightforward, right off the applications.
What was the most difficult question?
Students said most difficult question asked at University of California Davis School of Medicine discussed MMI scenarios, ethics questions about mentally disabled patients, and the most pressing problem in medicine today. The interview format may have been an MMI with a nondisclosure agreement in place, with questions ranging from personal attributes to healthcare reform and ethical dilemmas.
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signed an NDA
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An MMI scenario
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An unclear MMI scenario
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you sign an agreement not to discuss specifics of their MMI format
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Under obligation not to discuss.
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Several ethics questions about mentally disabled patients and patients with poor prognosis.
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Are you willing to live in Northern California?
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specific questions asked with regard to my background
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What would you change about yourself/something you want to work on?
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Student Interviewer: How would your family and friends describe you?
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How will you deal with the difficulties of medical school, considering you don't have a choice of schedule and courses?
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What do you think is the most pressing problem facing medicine today?
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What's your learning style? What type of curriculum suits you best?
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If you weren't going into medicine, what would you be? (i.e. florist as the interviewer's example response)
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none
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There was none.
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You talk about residents and physicians becoming disenchanted with the profession. How would you prevent that from happening to you?
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healthcare reform
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Ethics questions. I was bambarted with Abortion, euthenasia, stem cell questions.
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In a system designed to provide more access to medicine, how would orthopedics be covered if at all.
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What do you want to talk about? (The open endedness of this question seemed difficult)
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How do you deal with people in a group when they are not doing there part. Give a specific example of when this has happened.
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See above.
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How would you fix the healthcare system?
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Give me the most important quality in a leader.
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Why did you choose your major (I was a non -traditional major)
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The political event in my homeland.
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What is the weakest point in your application? (and i was honest!)
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What has been your greatest challenge? (an honest answer would have been an inappropriate topic)
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what would you bring to the school
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Why didn't you get a letter of rec from this doctor you shadowed?
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none in particular, although I was caught slightly off-guard with the interesting questions
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What should be done to fix health care (from an insurance stand-point)? What do you think of nationalized health care?
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How should we deal with the problem of an unchanging number of hospital beds with an influx of patients?
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How did you deal with a given school conflict?
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The ethical question
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What do you want out of life?
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Teach me something. (This one caught me by surprise)
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Questions about my family history
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to choose between saving two people (ethical)
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the student asked a few ethical scenario questions, but they weren't too bad
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I can tell that you are a very articulate person and I also know that you wrote a well written personal statement. Why the low score in the verbal section of the MCAT?
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What would you want me to say to the admissions committee if you were in the room to convince them to let you in?
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(see above) - he also asked what my boyfriend of 7 yrs. would say.
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if you gave a patient who is allergic to penecillin a penecillin shot, and there was no reaction, would you tell the patient your mistake?
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how are we going to solve to health care crisis?
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What are your fears about medical school?
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See above
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Some ethical questions, but none too difficult. No right or wrong answers really.
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how will to balance medical school and your family life?
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None in particular.
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Some ethical question on assisted suicide. My student interviewer didn't stop at listening to my views, but also pressed further and proposed possible difficult scenarios.
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Nothing too difficult.
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none really
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Why would you go abroad( Africa, Middle East, S/Central Ameria) when there are people here in the US who need so much help?
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Name a book/movie that you have read that describes you.
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How do the meds you have taken function biochemically in your body?
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See above. Also, I got asked a couple of other ethical questions that are typical of many interviews (for example, you have one respirator and two patients--an eighty year old, and a fifeteen year old--so, what do you do? Who do you give it to?)
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what is the biggest problem facing our country?
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What was your worst learning experience? (didn't really understand this question)
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When is a time you had to work in a group and things did not work out? What happpened and how did you deal with it?
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Why Davis? (Just read up on Davis specifics)
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The most interesting question.
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How would you solve this problem?
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What do you think about socialized medicine?
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How would you address the issue in America where health care is not universal compared to other countries such as Canada?
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Name 5 qualities that are necessary for a leader and describe an experience where you were a leader and displayed some of these qualities.
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I was asked a lot of questions about medicade, which I am not super versed in.
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About what other people in the lab think about me
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What was your worst team-work experience? (It was difficult to think of one.)
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No challenging questions. Conversational interview.
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none were difficult
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If you were in my place and you were looking over your file what are some reasons why you wouldn't accept yourself?
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A variation of the "what are your weaknesses" question.
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How do you explain the actions of leaders who do wrong, i.e. the executives at Enron?
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What barriers do you perceive for yourself in getting into medicine?
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5 qualities of a leader.
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How would you deal with a Hmong father who after repeated attempts to make him stop, he continues to burn his child's back with hot coins?
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The ethical questions posted in other reviews
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None of the questions were too difficult, except perhaps the one about telling my intervier about myself (they've already read about you, so it's hard not to feel you're boring them to death with your spiel)
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There were lots of hypothetical case questions - just review the questions that other people posted.
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What was the last thing you did with your friends?
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The questions were about my life in general so no hard questions.
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If you made a dosage mistake and the nurse caught it and fixed it before it harmed the patient, would you tell the patient you had made the mistake?
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Let us say that you were really tired one day and accidently prescribed the wrong drug to a patient. Lucikly the nurse found out before the medicine was given and corrected the misutake. The patient never knew about the mistake. Would you tell the patient what happened? Explain why you would take this course of action.
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my interviewer told me about a homeless woman with two children who went on to graduate from UCSF med and opened her own clinic to help underpriviled patients. Then he asked me how far I would go to live out my dream of working for minority communities.
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how would a friend describe you
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same as above
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What was a failed learning experience.
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How do you tell a family (Jehova's Witness) that their child may need a blood transfusion?
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How did you overcome some of your troubles?
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What would your friends say are your weaknesses?
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What strengths/weaknesses would your biology lab partner say about you?
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If a patient is faced with a decision between two treatments, and he/she insists that you pick (despite your efforts to presuade him/her otherwise) ... what will you do.
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What are your weaknesses...I hate that question.
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One of the Ethical questions: See below
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An ethical question, asking what I would do in a situation. It was somewhat confusing.
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Each Interviewer asked one Ethics Question. There are no "correct" answers, they just want to see how you think on your feet.
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Ethical situational questions.
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None. It was just a relaxed conversation. My interviewer's son was applying to med school as a nontrad like me so we talked about that a little.
🤝 Interview Format and Logistics ▼
How long was the interview?
Most respondents had an interview of more than 50 minutes.
How many people interviewed you?
Most respondents were interviewed by 2 people.
What was the style of the interview?
Most respondents had a one-on-one interview.
What type of interview was it?
Most respondents had an open file interview.
Was this interview in-person or virtual?
Most respondents had a virtual interview.
Data includes both pre- and post-COVID interviews.
Where did the interview take place?
Most respondents were interviewed at the school.
📍 On-Site Experience ▼
Who was the tour given by?
Tours were most commonly given by a Student
How did the tour guide seem?
Most tour guides were enthusiastic about the school.
How do you rank the facilities?
Most respondents rank the facilities as above average.
What is your in-state status?
Most respondents rank the facilities as below average.
What were your total hours spent traveling?
Most respondents spent 2-3 hours traveling to the interview.
What was your primary mode of travel?
Most respondents traveled by automobile to the interview.
About how much did you spend on room, food, and travel?
Most respondents spent less than $100.
What airport did you fly into?
Respondents who flew to the interview generally used Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
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Sacramento International
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Sacramento
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Sac
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SMF
Where did you stay?
Most respondents stayed either Friends or family or with friends or family.
What is the name of the hotel you stayed in?
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Vegabond Inn
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Super 8 Motel
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Super 8 Executive Suites
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Stay with a student if possible
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Motel DE VIlle
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Marriott Courtyard Midtown
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Mariott right by the hospital
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Good Nite inn
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Fairfield Inn Rancho Cordova
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EconoLodge
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Courtyard MArriot right across from UCDMC
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Comfort inn
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Best Western-Med Park
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Best Western
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AirBNB the first night then host program the second night.
How would you rate the hotel?
Most respondents rated their hotel as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
Would you recommend the hotel?
Most respondents would recommend their hotel.
What is your ranking of this school's location?
Most respondents rate the school location as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What is your ranking of this area's cultural life?
Most respondents rate the area’s cultural life as good.
0 = Bad, 10 = Great
What are your comments on where you stayed?
No responses
✅ Interview Preparation and Impressions ▼
How is the friendliness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was friendly.
How is the responsiveness of the admissions office?
Most respondents said the admissions office was moderately responsive.
How did you prepare for the interview?
Most applicants prepared for the interview by reviewing their application, reading the school's website, and utilizing resources like Student Doctor Network (SDN) and practicing mock interviews. Many also researched current medical and ethical issues as well as common interview questions to feel more confident and relaxed on the interview day.
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general MMI prep, and practiced telling parts of my story succinctly (their MMI stations are really short, 5 minutes each)
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Trying to relax and be myself.
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Had previous MMI, read up on current events, read my application. Showed up confident and relaxed. Prepared all the little things (travel, room, food, comfy shoes) that helped the big day come together nicely.
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Read about the school, medical ethics thing, watched youtube videos on MMI (helps a ton!), and find any MMI question I can to practice on.
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SDN, read/reviewed current medical and news events. but you can't really study for the MMI
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Reviewed the MMI format
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Read thoroughly about health policy, medical ethics, and the school in particular. Reviewed my
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My first interview of the season (at a different school) didn't go so well because I overprepared - I mock interviewed, read a lot, thought about it a lot. As as result, I kinda psyched myself out and didn't do well in the interview. UCSF is my top choice and I didn't want to make that mistake again. For UCSF, I did minimal formal preparation and just chilled.
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Read over my application and browsed the web site.
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SDN, researched the school and topics of commonly asked questions
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Read my application and school's website.
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Website, SDN, read applications
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reread my personal statement, thought about why i wanted to come to davis and why i would be a good asset to the school
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SDN, reread apps
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SDN Interview Feedback, Reread Primary and Secondary Applications.
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SDN, AMCAS, Secondary App, UCDSOM website, various healthcare info/policy sources online
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SDN, read my AMCAS app and my secondary app, talked to students I know who attend the school.
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Read Davis website and SDN. I should have read about their new curriculum, because I sort of shot myself in the foot when the interviewer asked me the question about Davis' curriculum.. I had nooo idea what was different about it or whatever.
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SDN, typical interview questions, mock
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SDN, practiced interview questions with friends, looked up healthcare/ethical info, looked up info on the school
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Previous interviews, SDN
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SDN, MSAR, and Previous interviews.
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Reviewed primary and secondary, talked to M1 students, mock interviews, went over many practice questions, looked at interview feedback, reviewed UC Davis SOM website
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primary, secondary, SDN, MSAR
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SDN, reviewed my profile and made a set of questions to myself. Mock interviewed a lot and got feedback.
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SDN, read a medical ethics book, read over Apps, e-mailed a friend who currently attends.
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The same way every premed student does!
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SDN, website, read secondary
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talked with students at UCD, read this site.
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SDN, application, reading up on healthcare
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SDN, Davis website, and mock interview with a friend a UC Davis med school.
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reviewed AMCAS app and secondary/CV
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SDN, looked over my file
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SDN, my previous exp., UCD Web, CD
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didn't really
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No real preparation. (Bad idea)
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SDN
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sdn, website, reread secondary
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SDN, other interviews
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SDN, UC Davis website, looked over AMCAS and secondary essays, going to other interviews
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Reviewed my apps, this website
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SDN, reviewed Davis website
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Read SDN, read up on ethics, healthcare issues, etc.
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school website, materials they sent, sdn
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SDN, PS, Web
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Read sdn, essays.
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Tried to read about the school, but the website was worthless
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tried to learn about the school
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SDN, read over secondary essays
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SDN, School Website.
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read my AMCAS, went to the school's website (disorientation manual is fun =) ), visited SDN.
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Read SDN posts/feedback, re-read my AMCAS, looked at UCD website, previous interviews
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SDN, primary, secondary, uc davis website, online research of current medical topics
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review AMCAS, questions
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SDN feedback, reviewed application, researched program website, spoke with current students
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Read AMCAS app, secondary, info about UCD
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Website, talked to students (I attend undergrad), SDN, AMCAS App
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Read my application, researched the school and its mission statements.
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reread my essays, reviewed the interview feedback on this website, reviewed school info and website, emailed current students (all of whom were extremely helpful)
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Secondary, AMCAS, this site
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Read over my app, looked through the website, talked to my friends at Davis
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SDN, re-read my apps
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I studied this site, read the reviews at the AMSA website, and read as many books about medicine as I could get my hands on.
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read sdn, school website, my app
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This site, my application, UW bioethics site, UW interview video online, many sites on health issues and current events/stands on health issues, Mock Interviews by UC D 4th yr medical student and Stanford 1st yr medical student.
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Researched the school thoroughly, overlooked my app, sdn, read up on health care issues, public policies, politics....went overboard :)
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Read about the school, spoke with students, SDN, practice interview.
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This website, the med school website, brochures, my application.
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Practiced with buddies, read through my million essays, and perused some information about the school, its medical center, and its amazing student-run free clinics. Of course, I read reviews on SDN.
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sdn, website, mock interview
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primary/secondary apps, this site
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Just relaxed, had some coffee and toast with my dad at the hotel before, and chilled.
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SDN, Davis site, reread my application (Thanks again, SDN)
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Reread my application, read the "must read" med school books a while before (Spirit Catches You, Kitchen Table Wisdom, etc), mock interviews at school, made sure I was current on election issues, tried to relax
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SDN, UCD website, MSAR
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SDN, university website, read "Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman
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SDN, reviewed application, searched UCD-SOM website, spoke to UCD med students
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SDN, reviewed primary, reviewed secondary, mocked with family, and practiced in front of a mirror
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looked over my file, read interview feedback.
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This site, UCD website
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Interview feedback, school website, secondary, MSAR.
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Read my application, school's website, SDN
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read application, sdn, talked to friends at the school, looked up current issues in Davis/Sacto community health
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Went to the Davis website, re-read my primary and secondary applications
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read SDN, Davis website
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Read about the school, SDN, AMCAS application, and my secondary. I also read up on the most current health care issues the whole week prior to my interview.
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Read SDN, which really helps as the questions at davis are largely standardized. Also reviewed my app and my answers to the extensive list of secondary questions davis sends out. Read a book on bioethics.
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Read over AMCAS and secondary applications, the UC Davis SOM website, interview feedback on SDN and just kept myself informed about health/medical news and general news on CNN and in Time magazine.
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SDN, reread my file, read the UC Davis website, read UC Davis school publications and articles from faculty
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read through my app, did some background research on the interviewer and the school
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Mock interview
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Read about the school, this site and was just myself
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Read over secondary essays, SDN website, UC Davis magazines, brochures on student-run free clinics, and MSAR
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read SDN
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sdn, reread essays
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SDN, MSAR, UC Davis web site and current health issues via web search.
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I reviewed my AMCAS, Davis secondary, UCD SOM website, common interview questions list from my advisor. I also read all the questions listed on this site asked previously.
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I read over my AMCAS application, the Davis secondary and the SDN interview feedback. I talked to some people that went to Davis to get a feel for how the students liked the school.
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SDN, PS, AAMCAS app, my secondary essays, MSAR, princeton review book.
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i went to davis for undergrad so i already knew everything i wanted to know about the school in terms of the people, the environment, etc.
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SDN, read over PS and secondary responses, looked at UCD website
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Read essays, SDN, school's web site.
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Read over my application, SDN, school website, and then just relaxed and watched tv.
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Read this site. Reread my AMCAS app. Looked up the bio of my faculty interviewer.
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SDN, application
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SDN: read essay workshop 101 section, read over application.
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Review AMCAS application, secondary application, read up on ethics
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Reviewed my app, Read SDN.
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Read my app. and looked at the website.
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Went over my application and used this website.
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Website, Going over application
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Asking friend who are at the school, reading up on the school, going to web sites such as this one.
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Website.
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Read up on my interviewer, looked over my AMCAS.
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Read my app. A little brushing up on medical ethics/healthcare issues questions, but that wasn't really necessary.
What impressed you positively?
Applicants were overwhelmingly impressed by the welcoming and supportive environment at UCDSOM, as well as the friendliness and enthusiasm of the students and faculty. The state-of-the-art facilities, early exposure to clinical experiences, and emphasis on student well-being and community engagement were notable highlights for many applicants.
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Extremely welcoming and friendly. It was clear from the interview day how supportive of an environment UCDSOM is. The student panel was a nice chance to settle in and calm down before the interviews started.
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The warm and inviting culture of the school, transparency about the school and its admissions process, camaraderie, agreeableness, and enthusiasm of the students (lots of hugging), delicious and hot catered food for lunch, beautiful and well-maintained buildings and facilities, proximity of the education building to the hospital, and large student turn-out (almost 2:1 student:interviewee ratio) during the Q&A portion of the interview day.
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Hospitality of staff. They provided tic-tacs, floss, mouth wash and all that jazz in the rest rooms. There was also tissue, a bottle of water, hand sanitizer at each MMI. To me, the little things help! Also, I got to shadow a medical student at the student run clinic on Saturday which was an AMAZING experience.
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facilities, friendliness f staff
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It was very chill and happy throughout the entire process. I had a lot of fun.
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friendliness of student body. They seemed genuinely happy and many students are involved in some sort of service activity which shows they are engaged.
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The organization of the day, the student-focus, the student body, the meeting with the Outreach Dean
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The MMI was pretty good.
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students were very laid-back; very diverse population; it's a bustling little community in the heart of San Francisco
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My faculty interview and the schools commitment to serving Sacramento communities.
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I was very impressed with the school. Everything is new. The anatomy lab is huge, smells great, and the students share 20 or so cadavers. The students were all very friendly and I met a handful when I was just getting coffee.
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Faculty and student enthusiasm for and interest in interviewees.
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Davis is GREAT. Great faculty, happy students, amazing facilities. I'd be THRILLED to go here.
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How super friendly the students are. They really made us feel welcome and a whole bunch of them came to have lunch with us even though they did not have to. The anatomy lab is great. The building is still new and shiny.
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how hands-on the education is right up front
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The facilities are new and beautiful, the students seemed happy and are very sociable,the involvement in student run clinics and other extracurriculars
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The facilities are great. The students are happy. The "small college" organization. The student run clinics. Most students have a very short commute to school. The focus on clinical experience.
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The welcoming and friendly feel of the school and the new and beautiful facilities.
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Their true commitment for serving the underserved and partnership with the surrounding community; very new facilities; Medical Educational Building is very student friendly; students were very nice and helpful; student run clinics
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The brand-new shiny facilities. The community focus of the school and the early exposure to clinical experiences.
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The campus is awesome--the Education Building where 1st-2nd year classes are held is possibly the best student facility out of the five interviews I've had so far. As in, I can actually imagine myself spending time here outside of class instead of rushing back home.
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Everything. The school exceeded my expectations in every way. The campus was very pretty. All buildings looked brand new. Everyone was friendly
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Everything is brand new! The Medical Education Building is beautiful and all of the students seem very happy, warm and welcoming. I love that they have a wellness room for meditation (complete with massage chair!). The interviewers were very friendly and relaxed. Love it love it love it!!
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My faculty interviewer was very engaging and he really made me feel welcome, and kept paying me compliments about my accomplishments, despite having never looked at my file previously. The med ed building is a sight to behold, very impressive. The dean of admissions is awesome.
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The new Medical Education Building is gorgeous, and I like how it is connected to the rest of the Health System in Sacramento now. The information session with Dean Henderson was very well done and offered a great look into how their new emphasis of teaching will be like. The interview day was pretty well planned, so there wasn't much dead time. The students are very happy here and could not have raved anymore about how satisfied they were with the school and support staff. I had so many students just say hi to me randomly or stopped to talk for a bit. The many free clinics that they have are amazing!
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The friendliness of the medical students, the close knit bond of the medical students (even among the the different classes), the facilities, the free clinics.
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facilites and technologies are new, Jan 2007!! State-of-the-art!
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I was so impressed by the fact that people at UCD were so nice. They would say hello to strangers like me. The first year gave me a lot of words of encouragement and the facility was brand-new and amazing. The anatomy lab had an amazing ventilation system and it did not really smell like an anatomy lab.
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How everyone had the same exact reason for choosing Davis and sentiment that they have been so happy since.
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The facilities are amazing and the enthusiasm of the students about the school. The tour guide gave interviewees with late interviews an extended tour of the facilities
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The facilities are brand new and beautiful. The students were so nice and welcoming. We continually walked by incredibly friendly faculty members. Davis is strictly Pass/fail for first two years.
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faculty
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Of all the interviews I've been to, the students at UCD were by far the friendliest. I was constantly being asked how I was doing and invited to class. People even came out of the break room to say hello. also, incredible med center.
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Pass/Fail grading for four years and consistently beating the national USMLE scores by 15 points? Wow!
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Everyone was very friendly. The medical center was amazing. I also liked the small town.
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My student interviewer was enthusiastic about the school and appeared genuinely happy =) He was also more than willing to share with me the best/worst things about the school/curriculum.
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The new buildings
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The hospitals, the student body, the new facilities
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the facilities, the dean, the people, the student interviewer
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The school seemed very much committed to service.
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students are great, seemed very happy to be there and extremely friendly. they have a really cool virtual medicine lab, we actually got to play around w/ simulated robots. and the student run clinic offer great clinical experience since day 1. and davis in only 2 hrs away from tahoe!
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students were happy, very friendly
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Dr Bera is a very thoughtful, insightful guy who cares about the students, and wants them to retain their identity and their sanity throughout med school and beyond. He gave us a couple of really good, honest talks about life during and after med school.
-
New campus for 1st and 2nd yr students in Sacramento starting in 2007. I love that new car smell!
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The students are all REALLY happy there. Also, though I didn't get to see them, I heard all about the SEVEN student-run clinics... SEVEN!
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New medical center opening in december, how happy students were, all of the outdoor activities in the area
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The students were very nice and looked extremely happy!
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the student body enthusiasm and kindness, the interviewers were great, family systems (student support), Davis moving in a killer direction (new facilities, new spiffy curriculum), the pass/fail system
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Facilities
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They are constructing all new buildings on the Sacramento campus.
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Newly integrated curriculum
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Friendliness of faculty and students
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the virtual teaching facility with the dummies was cool and one guy in our group got to unclog an artery and insert a stint. they use standardized patients. dr. bera is really humble and down to earth and had a lot to say about medical school and life. he also could never remember if we were in sac or davis (you have interviews and programs at both locations) which was funny and cute.
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the entire mentallity of the school, laid back and flexible to your desires and goals, focusing on the individual student
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The apparent student cohesiveness during the interview day. The facilities were very nice. The faculty involvement in the student body. The oppotunities for patient interaction during the first two years.
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Faculty were very laid-back and comfortable to be with and really liked the school, provided breakfast and lunch, the college system they have set up and doctoring classes.
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The students were really happy to be there and stressed over and over again that you have a life at Davis. Every other school I've been to has been negative in that aspect.
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relaxed atmosphere, genunine interest of faculty in getting to know you
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the closeness of the student body.
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The open and friendly attitude of all the staff, faculty and students, and the obvious effort to make the day non-stressful.
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The many student-run clinics
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The growth potential of the school and the friendliness of the staff. Also, they are undergoing a curriculum change that helps the students prepare for the first round of boards and for residency.
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This school is amazing. I had somewhat low expectations driving up for my interview, but I was blown away when I got there. Big emphasis on supporting med students, great opportunities for early clinical experience. A lot of faculty interaction. Everyone is really happy to be there (even people from big cities like NY whom you would expect to be bored in a smaller city). There is a great sense of cohesion and support btw med students. The facilities are very new.
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The people and facilities - everyone's happy to be working there or going to school there; lots of emphasis placed on students' well being; facilites second to none (when new med school building is completed)
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People are very friendly. The faculty seem very happy to be working there.
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New facilities for the incoming class of 2006! Our tour guide at the medical center was really enthusiastic and fairly laid back. From talking to faculty and students, I could tell that the school puts emphasis on their students and their education. Since it is a relatively new medical school, "tradition" isn't an issue, so they have room for innovation and creativity.
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Everything! Well almost everything. Enthusiastic doctors and students, an admin that gets its function, lower cost of living, p/f grading the first two years, the mentorship, the family plan, I could go on and on but it's the same stuff everyone else writes.
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The interview day was run by the department of surgery and every candidate was interviewed both by a staff surgeon and by the Chief of Surgery. We were escorted to and from every interview (if you have had to navigate a hospital by yourself you know how valuable this is!); and the student tours took us to the clinical facilities: the trauma care, the brand-new pediatrics wing; and we saw the foundations going down on the future wings. My M.D. interview was filled with difficult, not to say unanswerable questions, coming at me fast and hard, but I feel much more at ease with this kind of confrontational questioning than I do with the gentler but creepier let's-get-to-know-each-other style. (You need not share my preference.) Student morale is high--even the students rotating through surgery are friendly, curious, and relaxed; and my student interviewer, while careful, was also completely sincere with the good and bad points of the school. Looking at the students at their outdoor barbecue (a typical Davis social) I thought that the school had succeeded better than most to get all sorts of underrepresented folks in. The students feel more mixed--both racially, ethnically, and by class--than any other school I visited. The facilities are jaw-droppingly huge and sophisticated. There are five (!!!!!) student-run clinics. They do hold your hand here: the class load begins nice and easy and but ramps up gradually. But what most impressed me was the frankness of the Dean of Admissions, who, when he thought our questions for him were not hard-edged enough, spoke of the difficulties we would face if we matriculated at Davis. This sort of blunt honesty impressed me more than all the NIH funding in the world. (See below.)
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The hospital, the people, Dean Bera, the student run clinics, the price.
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clinical facilities, happy students, neighborhood around hospital, passion of the dean of admissions
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High tech facility of the medical center in Sacramento, many student run clinic for early hands on practice of medicine.
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The faculty is incredibly nice there. They make you feel like home. I was so happy with the way the faculty spoke with me and treated me.
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I was very impressed by the school's hospital and facilities. Very beautiful place
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The admissions staff was so friendly and make you feel right at home.
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I love the campus and community feel of Davis. Although there is currently a split "campus" (1st + 2nd years spend their pre-clinical years studying at the main UC Davis campus, and 3rd + 4th years spend their clinical years at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, about 20 miles away), they are builing a new teaching facility on the medical center campus for the 1st + 2nd years. Also, the students are so happy, and among the UC schools, Davis is by far the cheapest in terms of living costs. Also, the student-run clinics are amazing and remain unparalleled in the nation. Davis has great emphasis on the patient and human aspects of medicine and has incresingly become a world leader in biomedical research, particularly in genomics and nutrition.
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sacramento campus is fairly nice
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How amazingly laid back the atmosphere was
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Nice Sacramento campus, nice students everywhere.
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Pretty much everything. The attendings and residents were overwhelmingly positive and energetic, and the few students I chatted with were also happy. The focus of the school is on keeping you human while training you to be an MD, and that's fantastic. Dr. Bera, the dean of students, is one of the nicer human beings I've been priveleged to meet. Rad virtual training center in the UCDMC hospital. From primary care to surgery, this is your place.
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Nice environment for a medical school.
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Everyone is SUPER friendly.. they don't want to stress you out.. they want to "sell" their school to you.. which they are extremely good at!
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Everyone there was pretty cool and laid-back
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UC-Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento is very beautiful with a lot of open space and new construction going on.
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My interviewer was the nicest I have had, its the only interview that I've had where I genuinely enjoyed speaking with my interviewer.
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This was the best interviewer I had so far. She was a very nice lady who expressed genuine interested in me as a person and was not interested in numbers. I felt an instant connecection with this lady. The conversation was very sopontaneous. We discussed lots of things from spirituality to science and medicine.
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Location (I loved the drive up there; there is never any traffic, well at least not at 8am, 3 and 4 pm and the scenery is nice.), learning of the many clinical experiences available to the med students and finding that they are really into the clinical aspect of medicine.
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The new facility being built in Sac, the student run clinics
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everyone was so absolutely happy. there was no bullshit about how high the school is ranked, great research blah blah blah - maybe because these standards don't really apply to the school. you will get a great, solid education and training, and it will be as low-stress, non-competative and happ as medical school can be. believe it. you might not be in an interesting and stimulating environment as far as cities go, but does it really matter?
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The students were really friendly, laid back and really wanted to answer our questions - I could really see myself as one of them next year - they didnt seem like the over-competitive pre-med freaks I've come to know over the years - i guess Pass/No Pass really works wonders. The student-run clinics really impressed me as well.
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My interviewer found out that I hadn't had a student interview (I don't think any of the applicants did), so he took me downstairs to try and find me a medical student to talk to. We didn't end up finding the student, but I was really impressed that he cared that much to go out of his way to make sure I got all the information I needed/wanted.
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The students were very happy there and were the most friendly I've encountered. The students also spoke highly of their instructors. The student run clinics also sound impressive.
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The students! They are candid, happy, and interesting people. The student run clinics are the best I have seen at a medical school. The sacramento medical center is also new and impressive. The "expanded curriculum" option that gives time for research. Davis has a lot of high quality biological research going on as well.
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The friendliness of the students, staff and faculty. The UCDMC in Sacramento is truly amazing as is Shriner's Hospital across the street. Everything about this school and the surrounding communities is really relaxing and comforting.
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Everyone (students, faculty, administration, other people on campus)is very friendly. The student run clinics allow 1st yr. medical students to volunteer in their first week of school. The UC Davis medical center (in Sacramento) has so many specialized units, e.g. level 1 trauma center, pediatric emergency room, mind institute (doing pediatric autism research), shriner's hospital, west coast palliative care education and research (with hospice unit), burn center, etc. They also say that Sacramento is the most diversely populated city in the US. They are moving away from paper exams, so there is a laptop computer requirement (because you take your exams online). They are moving the medical school to Sacramento by 2006 into a state of the art new building they are constructing. Housing is affordable.
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nice neighborhood, people seem friendly in general.
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Attitude of 1st year students
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Attitude of first year students.
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I love UC DAVIS! I've been on a number of interviews and it is very clear that the faculty tailors the curriculum really well to preparing amazing MD's. They address everything to make your first two years the best possible from the limits they place on class time, pass-fail system ,etc. The faculty is really nice as well, I enjoyed my interview very much. I also enjoyed the people I interviewed with...I always take a look at who else is there b/c I think that's such an important, and often times, and overlooked aspect to see who UC Davis attracts and what they look for. My image of schools have dropped from the types of students present at these interviews.
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My interviewer was very professional and pleasant. He explained the purpose of the interview and mentioned that he'd already written down a list of questions he wanted to ask me.
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The family atmosphere at Davis, the location, the early clinical experiences. I didn't see it, but the Sacramento hospital is supposed to be nice
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students (although it was in the middle of the finals, they still dropped by and talked to us)
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The attitude of the students. They were all very enthusiastic about the school and the environment. Also, I was told that the school is moving toward paperless exams, how cool is that??
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The students seemed very mellow and happy. Everyone was very nice and enthusiastic, especially about the free clinics they run. It seems there are great clinical opportunities at UCD.
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The type of students that go there, the administration and the faculty....and most definitely the Sacramento Medical Center.
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davis is a nice quiet, clean town. Hospitals are amazing...tertiary center fro like 36 counties, so you see a lot of crap. The students are really chill and happy. Cost of living is reasonable. Nice weather. Can't complain.
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The people. Everyone is so laid-back and friendly it is amazing. I loved the school atmosphere.
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Such nice and laid-back people. Sacramento facility was very impressive.
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How real, down to earth, and caring everybody was. All of the students were so chill. My faculty interviewer was super cool and really cares about educating good doctors. My student interviewer was also super cool and fun to talk to.
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The students are great, and there is a nice small-town vibe going.
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The people are genuinely nice. My faculty interviewer was very friendly and even sent an email to me upon acceptance. The hospital is a county hospital (so you get lots of experience) and it is huge.
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The students seemed very happy and pleased with the clinical experience that they receive early on.
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UC Davis seems to be a Mecca for the nicest people in the country. Wandering around the campus, I was wished good luck, complimented on my suit, and given an impromptu tour all be different students.
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The school has four excellent student-run clinics. It also emphasizes clinical exposure early in a student's career.
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There are 5 free clinics, run by the students. Students are able to partcipate as early as the first day of their first year. Tuition is extrememly cheaper than out-of-states!!!
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The students, they are all so friendly.
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The emphasis on clinical experience for their students.
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How genuinely nice the med students and faculty are. They were in the middle of finals, but still came out to provide us an awesome interview day.
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Everybody's good nature. They were all just so nice and relaxed.
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Very open, relaxed, and positive student body.
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The wonderful medical center and Shriner's Hospital across the street. Also, all of the students seemed very happy and were very friendly.
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Everyone was SO NICE. My faculty interviewer was great, and my student interviewer was cool too. The students seemed really happy. The Medical Center in Sacramento is really nice, and seems to be growing, construction all over the place. It's not really plagued by the financial problems many hospitals seem to be suffering from.
What impressed you negatively?
Applicants commonly expressed concerns about the late communication and organization of interview logistics, including last-minute requirements and scheduling uncertainties. They also mentioned dissatisfaction with outdated facilities, lack of student diversity, unimpressive tours, and disorganization throughout the interview day. Suggestions included improving communication, updating facilities, enhancing diversity, and streamlining the interview process.
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Nothing at all. I walked away from my interview wanting UCDSOM soooo badly.
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sending out the info SUPER late! I got the info the interview about 7 days before my interview. We had to submit a photo a week before so I had to take a photo that day and send it in. Then the host program and student run clinics reservations were also done 7 days out. These are a guarantee so it's frustrating. Thankful I booked an AirBnB for Thursday night because I didn't want to wait a week before to sign up for the host program. Then I ended staying with a host on Friday night and going to the tour of the student run clinic on Saturday (which I didn't know I would be doing until 7 days before).
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Wish there were more opportunities/time to ask questions
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the tour is pretty lackluster and standard. The person who was our guide showed up late and got the tour times confused. it was pretty token.
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There seemed to be a large number of "role-play" scenarios which start to feel like acting performances. It is hard to judge what you NEED to accomplish in these vs what you need to TRY to accomplish, so you leave uncertain of how well you did AT ALL.
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That I didn't get in :(. One of the MMI questions/instructions wasn't clear, and I may have been dinged (as I didn't know it was not clear until 1/2 way through my answer). But there were 9 other stations, so that shouldn't have mattered. Nevertheless, I didn't get it. The 'Meet the Dean' section of the interview was a surprise. It was unclear what this was going to be about. I was under the impression that the Dean would show up to the large group of interviewees and say "hi". Instead, it was more of an interview with a small group. I was the first to answer the question "Tell me about yourself". I spent 30 sec - 1 minute, as it was unclear how long or what we were supposed to answer. All others spent 5-10 minutes. I felt I was short-changed as I was first to answer, and I did not know what the purpose of the question was. I thought it was just an introductory question. I had no idea we were to spend 45 minutes with him. I thought it was going to be a 5 minute discussion in total. It would have been nice to know how to prepare for this.
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it was foggy and cold on my interview day; old facilities
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The
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I did not have the opportunity to drive around and explore Sacramento. There is not much to see in the area around the medical center (mosly residential).
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Location.
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Nothing. Nothing at all. I was blown away by this school.
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Nothing about the school, I wish they had more international programs though. but why did the school have to be in such a boring city?
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doesn't seem like the school really encourages students to do independent research as much as other schools
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Not as diverse as I would have liked
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I can't think of too much.
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The anatomy lab is apparantly about 10 minutes away from the Education building.
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The only thing that concerned me was that all the labs (except anatomy lab) are done on the computer.
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My faculty interviewer was 20 minutes late and didn't realize he was interviewing that day. So the open file became closed file and resulted in a bunch of stupid questions.
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The area of Sacramento where the campus is located is BORING. Dead. Nothing going on. It didn't help that I interviewed on a cloudy, generally gloomy day (current students told me that it was usually sunny).
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NONE
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I wish that we had gotten more of a tour-- we couldn't tour the Anatomy Lab because of finals, and we didn't tour the hospital because of time constraints. Also there was some technical confusion but the admissions staff acknowledged and said it should be smoothed out soon enough.
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The resignation by the admissions team to the fact that their electronic process has been and will go so roughly. The cost of tuition has gone up significantly. More along the lines of the electronic process, the fact that it was supposed to be an open file interview but it became closed file due to issues with downloading my file. It seems like something they should have dealt with long before scheduling interviews.
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The new electronic system is full of technical difficulties and could really affect how smoothly the planning of and the actual interview day goes. Lunch over an interview with the student is kind of a bad idea. You either have to wait to eat when that's all done, or risk doing something embarrassing while you eat and talk.
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lack of student diversity
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Nothing.
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Will be transitioning both the curriculum and school next year to semesters and a new campus in Sacramento, respectively, so there is still a lot of things up in the air.
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Nothing this is by far my top choice
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Sactown is pretty unexciting and very hot in the summertime. The students said that they didn't feel like the school stressed preparing them well for the Boards. The students do really well, but it is on their own accord.
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hot weather
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nothing really. the campus isn't the most beautiful thing, but its not that bad.
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Sacramento is described as hot and boring...
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The first two years in going to be mostly in one building.
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Nothing
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Dr. Bera is away... :(
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nothing, except that it takes about 5-10 years for them to finish building anything.
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sacramento not the greatest.
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ed.
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The other admissions guy seems less than enthousiastic, verging on hostile. Perhaps he just doesn't have an outwardly friendly personality. Also, the Davis campus lacks flair, but it doesn't matter because next year everything will be in the shiny new Sacramento buildings.
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The whole school is finally moving to the Sacramento campus. This is good on the one hand, since it sucks to have to commute between classes at the Davis campus and clinical experience at the med center in Sacramento, but the Davis campus is so beautiful and seems to have a more central location for students to hang out. I'm sure the move is great in the long-run, but I really fell in love with the Davis campus.
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i didn't like that i had to go back and forth from the davis campus to the sacramento campus, although that will change once the entire medical school is moved to sacramento
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I would have liked the presentation about UCD to have more oompf.
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They were unclear on certain parts of the curriculum and when the building will be finished. The new building is away from all the intructors' offices who teach in the first year and there isn't an official prep for the boards. And, I am going to harp on this, a very non-friendly person named Ed (I really think someone should do something about this) on the admissions committee. He simply deflated everything about the school when he gave the tour and answered questions negatively, he never even cracked a smile and he was supposed to be the face of the school! It would be a shame if I am saying this and he was having a bad day, but they are supposed to be impressing us as much as we are them and he left us (others made comments as well) with such a bad taste in our mouth.
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Driving back and forth from Sac to Davis and back. Very inconvenient.
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The class is already full and it is probably very difficult to get in now.
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Oh, so much, where to begin. Facilities in a state of flux, unproven new curriculum, faculty interviewer unhappy with new curriculum, a dean of admissions who couldnt think of anything special about his med school, student complaints about third year clerkships.
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Commute between Davis and Sacramento campuses
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i was put off by the fact that both my interviews were scripted because it makes me uncomfortable to get questions off a sheet instead of a normal conversation and because the questions were so specific. also, we didn't meet many students so it was hard to get a sense of what type of students go to davis and if they were happy, etc.
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the campus is moving to Sacramento
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Nothing really, but the talk at the end of the day was pretty discouraging....the addmissions office staff basically told us that the class was already full.
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I had to miss the tour of the hospital factilities in Sacramento because I had to get to the Davis campus for an interview.
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That I had to drive from the Sacramento campus to the Davis campus and back during the day since my interviews were at different places. Don't they know how much gas is?! Plus, I drove up to Davis from east of LA the day before so I hated being in my car at that point!
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long wait times, student tour guide just asked us what we wanted to see and did not really show us around or explain things
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it's in the cuts
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Would like to have seen more than the hospital on the tour.
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My interviewer seemed a bit intrusive about my personal life and really grilled me
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The tour guide didn't show us very much, he seemed rushed.
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nothing really; I had learned about the school and area way before my interview date so nothing really surprised me.
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They seem to compare themselves to other UC schools a lot.
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Moving the medical school to Sac also means that we're disconnected from the rest of the Davis community, i.e. other grad students.
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I have no idea what the new medical school will look like in sacto, and while it's good that the first through 3rd year students will be in closer contact, I think the school will lose some of its flavor.
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Over the summer of 2006 U.C. Davis will move the preclinical classrooms to Sacramento. (Davis is a town of 64,000, but Sacramento has almost half a million people.) The class entering in 2006 will be the first to occupy the new buildings, and along with the move the curriculum is going to be revamped so as to integrate the classroom and clinical training. It's impossible to imagine this move being performed without a few bumps.
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Not much, it may be a little too rural for my taste, though.
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davis seems like a flat uninteresting place (tho sacramento looks great)
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Medical student said some courses are not taught in the best way. Although it could be like this in other schools.
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The Davis location of the school is a bit old. They are building the facility for Sac so that should be nice, but the library and med school itself is real small.
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Where to begin?
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The Davis campus is in the outskirts and it is a bit old. Also, the morning was a little rushed and I did not get to complete the tour of the Med Center. No tour of the campus was given.
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Not too much. To be honest, the current facilities for 1st + 2nd years (the anatomy labs, the PBL rooms, and the lecture halls) are run down and showing their age. However, a brand new educational complex will be complete by 2006 in Sacramento on the medical center campus. So, no worries!
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faculty interview was closed file. when he asked me me something, he would ask three questions at a time, so i didn't know which questions to answer. he did most of the talking too.
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probably the least organized interview day i've attended. interviews are schedule at haphazard times at different locations (sacramento and davis). i didn't even get to eat lunch. oh, and there is no 'official' lunch scheduled where you can talk to med students. and you are responsible for your own transportation between davis and sac (shuttle only leaves once every hour). and no official tour of the davis campus.
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Davis... coming from LA, it was kind of small, very quaint though.
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Davis campus is ugly and small. The fact that there are two campuses an 18 minute driving distance apart is a pain.
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Little. You could complain about some out of date facilities, but the problems are cosmetic. A big new center will be up in 2006 or 2007, and if the library is small the electronic resources are vast.
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The fact that the campus is split between Davis and Sacramento.
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I only had one interview with a faculty and not one with a student; I thought everyone would get to interview with a student; med school facilities were kinda old-school
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The current medical school on the Davis campus is kind of run down. Fortunately, they are building a new one in Sacramento which will be ready in a couple of years.
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I didn't really get to get much of an impression of Davis because my time there was so limited. I missed the brief orientation because my interview was at the same time, as well as part of the lunch with the students, and the student tour was very limited, and the students didn't seem very interested in talking to me.
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I was impressed by the school except that their tuition seems to be higher than in oher UC's.
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There seems to be only 3 buildings (one being admin) dedicated to med school education. The library was relatively small and there didn't seem to be any space allocated for med students (eg study rooms, rec rooms, or computer labs). The med school cafe doesn't know how to make mexican food!
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Nothing negatively impressed my really. It's just that the bucolic setting of the med school, combined with the seemingly medicated happiness of the students, made me feel like I was visiting a cult commune out in Nebraska or something. I think I might need a little more stimulation outside of school and my studies than Davis and Sac can offer.
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the dude who presented the school to us at the beginning of the day. man, was he bad p.r. the guy needs to take some lessons or something on motivational speaking. i tried not to listen to him, since he made me feel like uc davis had nothing to offer.
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The facilities look 70s-ish - but they've just finished building a new Genomics building that they say will have lecture halls for med school students and they're going to move the med school facilities over to a new building in Sacramento nearer to the UC Davis med center.
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The new medical school building won't be ready for another year or two. At least they're building one.
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The facilities at the small Davis campus. They are older and rundown. The fee hike next year for the UCs.
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You can't tell that Sacramento is the most diversely populated city in the US from the UC Davis campus. Everyone kept telling me how there is a <1% housing vacancy rate, and there is no medical student housing, and all the good places are already taken at this point. Also, the Davis campus is like 3 small buildings on the corner of the undergrad campus, so they are very isolated.
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students seem stressed (exam time) had to wait around for a tour (a lot of downtime)
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I did not tour the Sacramento medical center
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I heard there isn't much to do in the town, but SF is only about 1 hour away. Honestly though, that is the least of my worries compared to all the great things it offers its students.
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I didn't have a student interview or a tour of the medical center in Sacramento because there were no third and fourth year students available.
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there weren't many students there because they were on vacation. I was able to talk to a first year though who was really nice and gave me alot of information.
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i know it's finals and all, but... no tour?? Come on...
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Didn't get a tour because it was finals week and students were not available to give tour.
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Some of us only got 1 interview because they didn't have enough students to do the student interviews. I also did not get a tour of the Sacramento facilities, just the hospital I had my interview in.
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Practically nothing. The Davis part of the medical school was not overly impressive, but that was fine because the good stuff is at Sacramento anyway.
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I had a lot of down time...I was literally there from 10:30-6pm. ridiculous. In addition, I had to drive around for my interviews.
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the curriculum is not very progressive here.
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Nothing really.
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Really nothing, but if I had to pick something, the Davis campus is not very modern looking.
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The day was a bit disorganized and confusing. Having to travel to sacramento was a bit inconvenient but doable via the shuttle.
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The facilities are out of the 70s, and it shows
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The medical school campus is very small and a bit run down compared to the other schools I have visited.
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The interview process was very disorganized and the buildings look very old and out of date.
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Between the introductory meeting and the next scheduled activity, I had three hours to wander around the small campus by myself. Also, I did not get to see the medical center which is in Sacramento.
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The Interview Day is not well organized compared to other schools that I visited. There was a lot of free time between the two interviews and the hospital tour. I would recommend bringing something to read--although you can attend lecture if you like. During my visit, all students appeared to be in class so I didn't have a chance to meet students and ask they about how they felt--particularly during lunch. At other interviews that I have been at, there were always students having lunch with applicants.
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Lack of diversity within 1st and 2nd year classes.
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The color of the classrooms.
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Nothing...everything was great!!!
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The long waits before the interviews and in between. Being there for 8 hours for two-2 hour interviews is RIDICULOUS!
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The fascilities, everything was under construction, and the library was just so small.
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Facilities. Straight out of 1967.
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The classroom facilities and distance the med school is from the medical center.
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Mr. Dagang from Outreach is a little overbearing at times.
What did you wish you had known ahead of time?
Applicants commonly wished they had known ahead of time about the welcoming and stress-free environment of the interviews, the unexpected group interview with the Dean, the importance of eating a good breakfast due to the long day, and the need for a car to navigate between the two campuses. Many also mentioned the potential for down time during the day and the upcoming relocation of the medical school campus.
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How kind and welcoming everyone would be
-
Although you are being evaluated and will be stressed, you will walk away with a positive impression of the school and its students. They also provide water, tissues, mints, toothpicks, etc. for interviewees so you don't have to worry about your allergies or cold when you are interacting with each station.
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n/a
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about the "meet the dean" during mmi
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That the admission people are all super nice.
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nothing comes to mind
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That I could have smiled in my photo!
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Parking/directions. Better coordination on clinic "tour". I signed up for it and then was treated as I was asking too much to be there. It was unclear why an offer was extended, but the people at the clinic didn't know about the offer.
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That we won't receive news for eight weeks (which is after the march 15th AMCAS deadline). Awkward.
-
That I would love the school and the students would be so amazing. The "group interview" with the Dean that throws many people off was actually one of the best parts of the day. The Dean asks you follow-up questions based on how you answer the questions he asks everyone (Name, where from, what do you do, why medicine). Being in a group made it less stressful.
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Felt well prepared by school and my own research.
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That it would cost me $10 to park where they told me to on campus. And they don't validate. Not that big of a deal, but come on guys. Poor form.
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The group interview session was unexpected. Eat a really good breakfast because lunch is served at the end of the day. I went into interviews really hungry
-
there is a chill group interview with the dean where he asks in turn about your background. very conversational, but in front of about 8 other students
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That I would've liked the school so much!
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Nothing.
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How low stress the day/interviews are and that the day ended at 1pm, not 5pm as we were told via email correspondance.
-
That the meeting with the Dean is very much like a third interview but in a group (you're with 5 other applicants). You get asked to say your name, where you're from, what you currently do, and why you're choosing a career in medicine. The day ends at 1PM
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How far the parking structure is from the medical education building.
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The meeting with the dean feels almost like a group interview; it kind of caught me off guard.
-
That interviews would be so chill
-
For the meeting with the very fun and engaging Dean Henderson, it was almost like a group interview. He addressed each of us individually and took notes as we listed our names, where we were from, and why we were pursuing medicine. I had studied up for responses on healthcare but was not expecting that kind of question at this point, nor about the Canadian healthcare system. Although I was caught a little off guard, the dean was very laid back and friendly, and gave great information about the school.
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Closed file interviews. No tour of anatomy lab or gym.
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That there would be so much fog that day, delaying just about every mode of travel. As well as the fact that the day would end at 1PM!
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UC Davis takes its time, so don't get scared if you don't hear back even 8-10 weeks after your interview. And that you'll have a lot of free time if your interview is scheduled for the end of the day.
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There are only medical students and PA students on the campus. It did not have any kind of clubs.
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There is a lot more traffic than expected and road signs are not clearly marked along I-80.
-
It was a very long interview day. Lunch was given, but breakfast was not, so make sure you eat breakfast.
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Get directions off Google Maps because the directions on their website are ambigious.
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Remember to bring a car in order to go from Davis to Sacramento.
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Nothing
-
Park in Elison or alison lot... they only provide accommodation in that lot. They should have sent us a map.
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that UCSF doesn't use dissection, they use prosection. I know this isn't about UCD, but I didn't know that. I also didn't know that UCD puts so much emphasis on students contributing to their own education.
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davis and sac campus are nearly 30 min away.
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you never get to actually eat at the student interview over lunch, so eat a big breakfast.
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That the student interview is over lunch. Although we meet in a cafe in the morning, there is no breakfast, so I was starving come lunchtime. It was pretty difficult, and I'm sure quite unflattering, to stuff forkfuls of taco salad in my mouth between comments on my research and health disparities in America.
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They should give you a parking pass that's good for the entire day
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First of all, you'll have to go back and forth between the two campuses over the course of the day. My day started at the Sacramento campus and ended at the Davis campus. If you don't have a car, you'll need to take a shuttle, and you have to buy the tickets in advance AT the Davis campus, so plan in advance. However, most of the students had cars and were willing to give the rest of us rides back to Davis.
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It was hot!
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that you don't get to meet with the students and the interview is very piecemeal (eg I missed the curriculum description because my interview crossed over during that time)
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Sac is dead during weekends.
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It takes 20 minutes to drive from the Sacramento campus to the Davis campus.
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That the first three months of class for the entering class will be chaotic as the school tries to finish building its new facilities.
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That the class was already full
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there was no breakfast and lunch was supposed to be during the student interview (so my student was eating while i had already eaten in a hurry to finish before that) and that the interviews would be straight from the sheet of paper and have many ethics questions.
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Breakfast is not provided, even though the orientation was at 8am in a cafe. Also, the class is really almost full. They are only going to add about 20+ more people. Yikes. But, it is the end of the season.
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The class was full already.
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The doctoring classes have standardized patients, that intrigued me.
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That the entire med. school campus is moving to the Sacramento med center site and that there will be brand new facilities. sweeeet :)
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everyone has a different schedule so its important to have a flexible ride between campuses
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that the entire med school was moving from Davis to Sacramento
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Nothing!
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Even though I was told all my interviews would be in Sacramento, I did have to go to Davis for them.
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nothing really (again) - this school and the area it's in just fit what my family and I are looking for.
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That not having a car makes things difficult. The Davis campus was not so impressive, but next year, everything would be moved to Sacramento.
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The freeway system with its two I-80s is confusing as hell.
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That the class has 94 students. (Fishbowl effect?)
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How great of a fit it was for me...I had no thoughts of attending until my interview.
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i was interviewing for waitlist only
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That we would not have student interviews that day.
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i should have reconsidered cute but not so comfy shoes.
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The campus and hospital are about 30 minutes apart. It takes a very long time to travel between the two. And they will not necessarily provide you with means of transportation between them.
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My interview day was really tight (please see my comments on the top of this page). For those of you not familiar with Davis or Sacramento, let Terri Hall know well ahead of your interview day!!! She will make sure to schedule your interviews far enough apart that you have plenty of time to take the shuttle from the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento to the Davis campus.
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no time for lunch
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It's a really far drive from LA. I would suggest flying.
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When you show up at Cafe La Bou for orientation in the morning, there are no signs to room 1109...just go ask the lady behind the counter. Also, I really think you need a car for this one...it's just hectic figuring out shuttle schedules and what not.
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How much I liked UCD!
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Stay at a hotel that is really close to the medical center. Traffic in Sacramento is pretty bad.
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That I was going to be interviewed by four different people at four different times throughout the day. IT was actually okay, I just didn't expect it.. plus it was my first interview, but all worked out in the end
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Nada
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nothing really... especially since with the limited scope of my visit I didn't really learn much while I was there.
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The whole thing felt a little disorganized.
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new campus being built - woohoo, med school will be in sacto, not davis. no cow town for me pleeese.
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You will need some way to get to Sacramento so having a car is helpful (but there is a shuttle). You don't need to stress out so much about the interview - the interviewers really try to make you feel comfortable, it felt like I was having an interesting conversation with a good friend!
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That I wouldn't get a chance to tour the medical center in Sacramento or interview with a student. Student fees will increase next year, but UC is still a bargain.
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Not much. I read SDN, so was prepared for the trip to sacramento. I have relatives going to Davis as well, so I knew a lot about the campus.
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They only accept about 90 - 100 people per year, and tuition is going up by a lot next year. Also, that I should have already submitted my FAFSA application. On the positive side, once you interview, they tell you either you are accepted or your application is on hold; and since they do not interview a lot of people since their class is small; you got better chances of getting in here versus other schools after the interview. They are implementing for the incoming class of 2008 a "scholarly project" requirement so students will be required to complete a research project resulting in a paper by the end of their 4 yrs. Although, according to the students, this really won't be mandatory for the class of 2008, it will be voluntary at first to see how it goes, with the goal of it becoming mandatory.
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did not get a student interview because my interview occured near exam time and there were no student available for interview at sacramento. Bottom line: if you can choose, try to pick times when the students are not taking exams, so you can benefit from a student interview.
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They didn't tell me I could stop by the office and get a parking permit before I bought my own.
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I didn't know there was traffic up in the bay area too!
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They're planning to move the medical school from Davis to Sacramento. Presently, the first two years of med school are spent in Davis and the last two in Sacramento. All the student-run clinics are in Sacramento and so are most of the hospitals too.
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They have a set list of questions that they ask. Almost all of the questions are on interview feedback.
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nothing really
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There is potential for a lot of down time if you do have 2 interviews and one is later in the afternoon. Having a car makes the commute b/w Davis and Sacramento much easier.
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Nothing really. I was well prepared for the interview day there.
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there was a lot of down time...
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There is rush hour traffic when you leave the Davis campus to go to the Med Center in Sac for the student interview.
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More info about amount of time needed to drive from Davis to Sacramento.
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How gorgeous and modern the sacramento campus is! The hospital is prettiest one i've seen.
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That I should leave plenty of time to drive from the davis campus to the sacramento hospital.
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The classroom and medical center are completely seperated in different towns.
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A lot of free time for you to do exploring on your own.
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How much fog there is up there. I had to drive from Los Angeles during the night, I wouldn't recommend that. If possible fly.
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none
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The fact that you may have to drive yourself from an interview with a faculty member at the Medical Center in Sacramento to the student interview in Davis is a little stressful. It's a pretty simple drive though, difficult to get lost.
What are your general comments?
Applicants generally found the interview experience at UC Davis to be pleasant, low-stress, and enjoyable. They appreciated the friendly and welcoming atmosphere, the conversational nature of the interviews, and the emphasis on being oneself. Some noted the helpfulness of the staff and students, while others highlighted the importance of having a car for transportation between locations and the need for validation of parking. Overall, the school was praised for its supportive environment, quality education, and emphasis on community and outreach.
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Honestly as pleasant of an interview experience as I can imagine
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Fell in love with the school and felt at home. It's like they say... "When you know, you know!"
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Had a lot of fun with the staff and students. I also did the host program, which I would recommend. I went to eat dinner with the hosts and their friends and hostees the night before. It helped to break the ice with some of the people I was interviewing with. Staying the medical students also helped me with getting the know the school and their feelings with it.
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Seriously, just relax and be yourself for MMI. Many people told me that and I didn't fully believe it until it was my turn. xd It was very interesting!
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just be yourself, cliche, but because of the MMI format, thats really all you can do, because you can't study for it. get a good nights sleep the night before, come with questions for students, because you spend a fair amount of time with them in the morning and during lunch and on the tour.
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The instructions request a neutral expression, which I felt unconfortable submitting as I felt it made me look un-interested and un-excited. Another applicant had smiled in her photo and I felt like the perception that her smiling photo would convey would be advantageous over my grumpy face! Please, don't ask for a neutral face if you will accept a smile.
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I loved the school and the interview. I felt that I was a good match to the school and geographic area (I will be a rural family practice physician). I felt that I did very well on the interview. Therefore, it came as a shock that I didn't get in.
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Unlike most of the interviewees who left feedback here, I can't really say my interview here was stress-free and relaxed. It was one of the more stressful interviews, if not the most stressful, that I've had this season. I was asked a good number of ethical questions and there were times when I felt like I was being grilled for my responses even to the simpler questions. I just tried not to get too caught up in the stress or beat myself up for loopholes in my arguments. After each question, I would tell myself, "That's ok, it was your honest, gut response. Forget it, smile, and move on." This was how I survived. I couldn't really judge my performance after the interview - on some days, I felt like I did well, on others, I cry from feeling like I blew it. It turns out your perceived interview performance can't really predict the outcome of your application. Result: accepted after a month.
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I thought this interview would be a lot more tense and intimidating than the other schools that I interviewed at because it is much more highly ranked, but it wasn't too bad. My faculty interviewer was really interesting and fun to talk to, my student interviewer a little less so. I'm still waiting for acceptance/rejection news though- so who knows.
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The medical school is awesome. Although I am not a huge fan of Sacramento yet, the school is great enough that I would love to be accepted here.
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Great school, loved the people, think I would be very happy here. Not sure about the location...
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This school is amazing not only because of the facilities but i think their biggest asset is the students they are really like a big family and I think i would be comfortable as a student there.
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2 interviews: 60 minutes with a faculty and 30 minutes with a student. students ask about how you handle stress, how you work better (alone vs team), what your strengths/weaknesses are
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We started at 8:30 with a tour of the medical education building. Then we had an interview day orientation (overview of day, financial aid presentation, admissions process). Then the dean came to speak with us about the great things about UC davis and the conversation was very interactive so be prepared to answer questions. Then we had our interviews. Times and locations varied among applicants, but the day pretty much ended at 1pm! Both interviews were very cool. Faculty interview was interesting and he asked me a lot of questions about myself that I was expected and had think about. The student interview was great and I enjoyed that we had similar interests.
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It would be helpful for UC Davis to validate parking. I also wish there was more time between interviews to accommodate walking. It would also have been helpful to have the tour include the anatomy lab and portions of the hospitals.
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Dean Henderson is a very laid back, cool guy. Students meet with him mid-day to share info about themselves and to learn about UCD. Be prepared to answer any questions that come up related to the health care system in the US and other countries. Dr. Henderson is very good at segwaying into topics related to interviewee's experiences and stories.
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They really make you feel very comfortable; my questions were not very difficult at all-they were all based on my application; nothing new or out of the ordinary. The student interview is over lunch and is really really casual.
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Overall, the interview day is pretty standard. Tour, presentation, meet with Dean Henderson, interview, lunch/student interview.
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Impressed by the campus; Sacramento itself seemed boring based on my first impression. We didn't get to tour the hospital or anatomy lab.
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Davis is definitely my first choice school-- the environment, the state-of-the-art technology, the opportunity for outreach in the community and with research... all-around-amazing!
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Interview didn't really affect my opinion of the school, but there were some small snags, but also some pleasant surprises, like my faculty interviewer.
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The interviews are supposed to be open file, but my faculty interview had no idea who I was, when I was coming, nor even seen my file because of problems with the new electronic system. Essentially, I had a closed interview with my faculty interviewer, and an open one with the student interviewer only because that student actually went to the Admissions Office to request my file. The new system is filled with bugs guys, be prepared for anything during these interviews, seeing how your interviewer may not even know that they are supposed to interview you. Other than these issues, I had a great interview day. It definitely changed my opinion of the school for the better.
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It may sound cliche, but just be yourself! Really hone in on the qualities you want the admission committee to know about and traits that you possess that they would want to see in their M1 class. However, don't give them empty words, attach these traits/qualities to anecdotes so that they have meaning. Anyone can say they are compassionate but telling someone a story of a time you showed or saw compassion is much more powerful. Good luck! =D
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there was a lot of dead time. by the end of the day i was fatigued due to waiting around all day. my faculty int was at 3pm!
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I had one interview with a faculty member and the other with a resident. My faculty interview did not go well because I bombed the ethical questions and few other questions that were asked which I had never thought about before. I think my assessment on my interview performance is correct since I have not heard back from the school for about 10 weeks and people who interviewed after me got their acceptances already. My interview with the student went well though. It was a very laid-back interview and I enjoyed talking with the interviewer.
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Great overall experience that started out horribly. I live roughly an hour and a half north of Sacramento and drive there frequently so I figured I would save some money and drive down that morning. BAD IDEA! Traffic was horrible and I missed the turnoff for the Capital City Highway so after a few stops for re-directions I arrived to the UCD Med Center 20 minutes late. On top of my lack of punctuality, I had forgot to throw my tie in with my suite and would have bought another one but already being late I figured I would be better off being there without a tie than being more late with one. From there things got better, though I interrupted the chief of surgery during his admissions presentation, afterwards I apologized and explained and he was awesome about it. My interviewer was equally understanding at the beginning, but at the end of the interview he informed me that while he would not hold my tardiness and lack of a tie against me, "it is all about the details". Otherwise the interview went great. Got to hang out with my third year tour guide who was awesome and answered all million of my questions and then took me and another applicant on a tour of the Med Center. Then had an interview with the Chief of Surgery which was great though I don't think it factored into the decision. Then Drove to the UCD campus and met up with my student interviewer. She was great and very friendly as well. Kind of drilled me on "the problem with medicine today" and how it related to orthopedics, my interest, but was awesome otherwise. We had barbeque ribs for lunch, which was happening becuase the first years were cracking ribs in their anatomy labs that day, and my interviewer introduced me to numerous other students who all seemed very laid back and truly happy to be students at UCD. A few of the other applicants and I were then allowed to go watch the anatomy labs for a while. We then had a meeting with an admissions person who answered questions and pitched the University. I had a wonderful day and would be honored to be a student there
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I loved the UC Davis medical school. The buildings and (most) people were wonderful. The faculty interviewer did not seem interested in interviews however the student interviewer more than compensated for enthusiasm. Has a small town vibe which is something I am looking for
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Showed up at 8. Met with dean and financial advisor. Toured campus and hospital. Interviewed with student over lunch and then had interview at 2pm.
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A really good overall experience. I wasn't expecting much from UCD, but after the interview day it was at the top of my list. The student interviewer was great, he seemed like someone I would go grab a beer with. The people here are great. My faculty interview was probably the toughest I've had, but he did such a great job to make it unstressful.
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It was my first choice before and remains my first choice after the interview. Very organized admissions process. The clinics (all 7!) are unparalled. The breadth of clinical experience that schools like to proclaim each student recieves is a reality at Davis.
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It was great. The interviewer told me that he ranked me very high.
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My experience at Davis was extremely positive. I went into the interview with Davis as my top choice and left with Davis still as first choice. I really like the Pass/No Pass grading and the efforts the school makes to unite the classes. While I heard the new curriculum is more difficult, I was also told it will help students better prepare for the board exams. My faculty interviewer was laid back and didn’t really ask many questions besides “tell me about yourself†and “what else do you want me to tell the admissions committee about you, that isn’t in your app?†My student interviewer was awesome and I hope to be in his college if I get into Davis =) The questions were pretty standard, no hard balls.
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Davis is a great place to interview at.
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Dr. Bera is away. So, a sub Dr. welcomed us. Talk for an hr, tour of the new building, 2 interviews in a roll.. one with faculty and one with student. Each is nearly an hour long. Low key interviews... laugh a lot... i dunno whether i talked tooo much or not
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I got there - very early - and interviewed before the orientation. Orientation was a bit random - the dean was very sincere and just speaking (without powerpoint). Then we had the tour (coudln't see the inside of classrooms b/c there were classes). Then I had my student interview, that was very interesting, easy and fun. Overall really relaxed, informative and fun.
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The interviewers were both very nice and low-key, which seemed to be the general consensus among the applicants. The school seemed great, the people seemed great.
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davis moved up many many many ranks after the interview. that about sums it up.
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I liked Davis more than I thought I would. They are going through significant renovation and expansion, which is always a good sign in a med school. The number and hands-on nature of the student run clinics are unparalleled. Also, on the shuttle ride back to the airport, my driver was a very interesting, articulate, experienced foriegn second year med student who made me like Davis even more. I don't know about living in Sacto, though.
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We met at 7:30am (a little too early for my taste) and had a light breakfast. There were about 10 of us that day. Intro, followed by 2 faculty interviews, traveled to Davis campus to meet with student interviewer over lunch, then finally a 45min video of UC Davis. We ended by 2pm. It would have been interesting to see the new campus but its not scheduled to open until early 2007.
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It was great. The student interviews are over lunch (but I ate beforehand, because I'm a messy eater and I had some free time), so my student interviewer bought lunch and we ate and talked outside. It was very relaxed and there was no set format. The faculty interview had a sheet of questions which he gave to me and said
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The students in our interview group were really nice! I liked my interviewers a lot. They really seemed interested in getting to know me as a person and I felt that it was easy for me to communicate with them.
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Showed up at a cafe and met a very nice Dr. Bera who kind of went off topic, but he is so nice that you get warm-fuzzies about the school. Then it gets handed over to not-so-warm-warm-and-fuzzy-man to give a tour of the hospital and not answer your questions, you have to get over to Davis from Sacramento (40 min drive) by car, carpool or shuttle, then either meet with student for lunch interview. Afterwards, I got to attend more of the description of the school when they showed a CD that they could have sent us home with (student life, goals of the school, etc.). Had to leave that early to make it to the faculty interview which was great (nice person) and super friendly. They do have to ask the formulaic questions, but you still get to talk afterwards - that was my favorite part.
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Stud hosts were very unpleasant to speak to when i asked to be hosted (they were all too busy, or were rude about me asking); Hated driving back and forth from Davis to Sac (as if they're doing us a favor!). Transpo there kinda sucks. One interviewer was SO rude, I almost left the interview in the middle. The other was so bored w/ interviewing that she fell asleep while I was talking.
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The introduction from the assistant dean was good. We had about 2 hours of downtime in the middle of the day. Both the student and the faculty member read my application beforehand and had specific questions to ask.
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Intro speech by a bored/disinterested admissions director, followed by two long interviews that would have been good if the interviewers didnt have to pull out their standardized questions at the end and start acting like robots.
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Morning began with a presentation by admissions on basic school info, finaid, and standing in candidate pool. Took a tour of the Sac campus and had an interview with a faculty member. Commuted to Davis campus and had a second interview with a student over lunch. Closing video on some more info on Davis and that was the day.
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i got to sac with time to spare (driving from the bay) and parked in structure 1 and walked across the street to the cafe, which was easy to find and the room is just past the bathrooms so if you are waiting in the main cafe and it's past 8am start looking for room 1109 or whatever. then dr. bera told us some stories and said some cool stuff about the med school experience and took us on a short tour that showed us the really cool room with the dummies and took us up the tower to see the new teaching facilities going up. my interviews were in the afternoon, so i drove to the main campus to hang oout for an hour and then headed over to the med campus and found some fellow interviewees to eat with. then we all went to meet the others in the couch area where we waited for students to come get us and interview us. the student interview felt long (it was an hour) and then the goodbye session was at 1:00 which was dr. bera again. we watched a video that summarized the davis experience and then he explained that the class is full but that doesn't mean it's impossible to get in. there's a lot of turn over especially after may 15. so then i had my faculty interview, which was also straight from the paper and i was actually handed the paper and asked to read the questions and then answer them. my answers may have been too long because my interviewer seemed to be slightly impatient at times and it did take a long time to get through everything. there were many ethical questions, many of which were the same ones the student asked me. at both interviews i was nervous because the types of questions made me feel like my answers should be specific and organized, like and essay. but at the end of each i was finally able to relax and have a bit of a normal conversation. anyway, i didn't feel that either went very well because i was uncomfortable the whole time.
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Davis was great! We saw a lot of the campus in Sacramento. the SOM is moving there to a new fab building with great facilities. They also have this amazing simulation laboratory with dummies. My interview was with the Dean of Admissions and it took place in the cafeteria. It was relaxed and conversational. He hadn't read my file yet, which meant that he really wanted to get to know me first. My student interview was very similar, but the questions were more directed. He had specific interview-like questions to ask me. I was also able to sit in on a physiology class and speak with some students. They were very happy at Davis and so enthusiastic. Overall, it was a great day.
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I loved UC Davis! I had great time while I was there. The interviewers (student and faculty) were very nice!
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I got to the Dept of Psychiatry (no nerves, there, right?) early in the morning and snuck in after a cleaning lady . Thankfully, other interviewees got there right after me. It started with a general introduction session in a conference room with the psychiatry faculty who were interviewing us and they also gave us overviews on the Davis experience and why it's better than other schools (bit of a turn off). Then there was a tour of the hospitals and new buildings in Sacramento, but I had to leave for Davis. My interviewer was nice, but he seemed rather distracted and, though the interview was conversational, it was also very traditional in questions and focus. Next was the medical student interview and we ended up getting into ethics discussions, which I enjoyed immensely. Then we went back to the conference room where I had interviewed and watched a informational movie and had a little wrap-up session.
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My UCD interview day was a really good experience. The school is definitely my first choice and so I was thrilled to interview there. The welcome session is very chill and everyone seems really laid-back during the day. However, plan on having an interview or 2 even if it says that your interview is scheduled for the Sacramento campus. I had to drive back and forth. The tour of the hospital was really cool - we got to see a lot and the student guide was really honest and funny. One interview is with a student and one is with a faculty member. My student interview was awesome - the guy was really nice and attentive. I found that the harder questions came in the student interview and watch out, they for sure have to ask you an ethical situation question so know where you stand. I just held tight to my beliefs and I feel it served me well since I was able to back it up with support.
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at first i was very nervous, but the relaxed and low key atmosphere calmed me down. first there is a brief orientation where they give you a packet of information and tell you where and when you will be interviewing,then there is a tour of the hospital and you are off to your faculty interview. mine was a phd so not all the faculty are md. then there is an hour break and the student interview and then an hour break to wrap up session, which is pretty pointless. they are straightforward in telling you where you are in the process, and open to any questions you might have.
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Great experience. My student interviewed was H-O-T! That made a causal conversation a little difficult, but all in all, it was a fine interview.
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it was a good experience- entire interview was a conversation
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This was a great interview experience; low stress, really friendly people (both UCD staff and the other interviewees!) and lots of care was taken to assure we could get where we needed to be. All of us had different interview schedules, so some people missed small portions of the tour and wrap-up session, but that didn't seem like a big deal. Good directions were given to the Davis campus, and I definitely recommend having a car so you don't have to worry about the shuttle. Some interviewees also carpooled. Overall, both interviews were very conversational but still included many of their required questions. I'm especially impressed by the emphasis that UCD has on training doctors to balance their lives between personal and professional commitments. They seem genuinely supportive of older students who are interested in starting families while in medical school.
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i was impressed by UC Davis because of all their outreach opportunities and new curriculum as well as other changes in order to meet student's needs. The interview I had did not go well, perhaps I may be wrong
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My interviews went great, especially the faculty interview. She mad me feel so relaxed, more like a conversation. This is the way UC Davis is, very laid back.
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Both of my interviewers were very familiar with my application. They asked me questions about my experiences and my family. I was pleasantly surprised that they were so interested in me as a person, not just a faceless applicant. This was by far the most informative and well-run interview day I've attended so far. I am very impressed with UC Davis.
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Very positive, very interpersonal, not stiff, very conversational (both with faculty and student interviewers)
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It was very pleasant. The day started very early, and there were quite a bit of down-time.
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This interview was less stress-free than i had anticipated, although the faculty were extremely friendly. I was pretty intimidated by the other applications (one was on the Olympic water polo team that won bronze...) and pretty tired too, so that didn't help. Basically, each department at the med school takes turns hosting interviews. My day was opthamology day (I pity those who get psych day), so my faculty interviews (2) were done by opthamologists. They had a list of questions that they were supposed to ask, and they went through these basically by rote. After the faculty interviews, we had to go to the Davis campus for our student interviews. These were done over lunch and were less formal, although the students did have a list of questions that they were supposed to ask. As a last note, if you don't have a car for the interview, you do need to get from the Sac campus to the Davis campus. However, usually there will be other interviewees that will give you a ride.
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I had a great day, and came away super impressed by our interviewers-chief of surgery, trauma surgeon, and student. They all shared a passion for medicine and a good life as balanced as possible. The students seem bright and fun and not overly competitive. My fellow interviewees basically seemed the same. I've done a number of interviews already, but this was by far the best program I've been exposed to.
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Davis's roots are in rural care and the training of primary care doctors, and so creating clinical acumen, while maintaining the civility and pace of a small town, remains at the core of their M.D. program. Yet as the school has gotten a ton of money from Larry Ellison, as well as California stem cell money, they've expanded operations quite aggressively. They are turning into a more urban med school associated with a super-clinic. (Judging by the size of the foundations, the trauma unit, by itself, is going to be as big as a small hospital). So they're choosing students who can run with this transition.
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Very laid back. My first interview was in Sacramento at the hospital with a pregnant cardiologist who, based on my impression seemed quite brilliant. She showed me some defibrillators and told me how expensive they were - other than that we just talked about my life story and passions and her experience at Harvard Med. My second interview was back in Davis at the Medical college (which is moving to Sacramento for 2006 - huge plus). I was supposed to have a student interview, but she never showed up. So after 4 hrs, Dean Bera asked if I wanted one from him, and so we stepped in his office and talked for 30 min or so. The best part was that my fellow interviewees waited all that time so we could go to dinner and give me a ride to the airport.
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it was generally good
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Overall, it was a very good day and experience. My interviewer, Dr Faith Fitzgerald was awesome, we had so much to talk about. Although none of the dilemma/etnical questions I spent days reading about was asked beside the difficult question. She really asked deeper/probing question to get to the bottom of why medicine question. I was prepared so am glad. by the way, lunch is provided, very nice variety of food at the davis campus cafeteria
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I absolutely love Davis, and I would love to be there. The school feels really warm and pleasant. The staff makes you feel comfortable, and I was never intimidated to talk to people. I was unable to get the student interview since they had finals, but i didnt mind. We still had a chance to meet with a couple med students and ask them questions. My interviewer had to be the coolest guy in the world, and all the others seemed to be nice as well. Be careful with the traffic in Sacramento, I was actually late, which totally bites, but what can you do except plan better next time. Basically, its a small and cozy school, totally my thing. City is close by and lots of fun. If you get a chance, go to Mikuni's sushi restaurant. ITS AMAZING!!!
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I noticed most of the interview feedback posts for Davis are very positive ones. Maybe your experience will be positive too--if so, that's awesome. My experience was a very negative one. I had seven interviews, and this was by far the worst. It made me wonder why they bothered to call me up there to begin with. The day began with a meeting at a coffee shop, which my student host had a hard time finding. When I arrived there, there were no markings or indications tht the meeting was to be held in a back room of the shop, and I had a hard time locating it. When I got to the meeting, there was a stack of papers on the table and I noticed the applicants who were there each had one, so I was going to pick one up, and the person hosting the interview glared at me and quite rudely said, "WAIT." Embarrassed, I sat down and waited to be handed one. After the meeting, we had a tour of the hospital which went well. the student hosting the tour was very friendly and I was impressed by the hospital. After that, each interviewee had a different schedule because different people had interviews at different times. My two interviews were to take place on the campus, which is in a different location from the hospital. We were supposed to find means on our own to get from the hospital to the campus, and not being from the area (and already being somewhat nervous as it was interview day) I was rather confused about how to get to the campus. Luckily, another interviewee in my group was going there and her mom was driving her, so they were kind enough to offer me a ride. The drive from the hospital to the campus was literally at least 30 minutes on the freeway, and I was not prepared for it to take that long. After that we were to get lunch individually, which was fine. When it was time for my interview, I went to the office of the person who was supposed to interview me, which is the location my agenda said I was supposed to go to. Her office was locked. I waited five minutes. She did not show up. I turned to the woman in the lab across the way and asked if she would know where the lady was, and the woman said that she thought she isn't coming in today. I located the administrative office on the floor and asked if they knew where the lady was; the receptionist did not know; we tried paging and calling her; she did not call back. She finally showed up 15 minutes late. At which point the very first question she asked me was "you know, I'm really very curious--you say you're fascinated by neuroscience but you got a C+ in this one neuroscience class...?" Which I thought was pretty crappy. My overall GPA was high and this was maybe the one low grade I had ever gotten--I had gotten high grades on many neuroscience classes, and I repeated the class I had a C+ in, earning a higher grade. When I said I repeated it and that the higher grade is in my AMCAS application and transcript, she said she can't find it. She spent a long time attacking that one grade, and when we finally moved on to something else--my research--she spent like 10 minutes talking to me about this one reagent I used in my research. I could talk about it as much as she wanted, but frankly I believe I had much more interesting things to talk about during the time we had together. I tried my hardest to maintain a positive attitude throughout the interview, but she made it very challenging. Because she was 15 min late, she went 15 minutes overtime despite the fact that I told her I had another interview immediately following this one--so I was late to my second interview. That one went well. My student interviewer was very nice, not to mention an incredibly hot guy, and I felt that he went out of his way to try to be nice and not make me stressed out (I'm not just saying that because he was hot). Unfortunately, because I started my interview with him late, we finished late, so I missed the last shuttle of the day and my student host had to pick me up (I had no other means of getting back)--she seemed pissed off about having to come all the way to the campus to pick me up, but I really felt like I didn't know what else to do. I flew back home in tears, feeling like I wonder why Davis asked me to fly all the way there, only to treat me rudely and pick on the one C+ I ever got for 20 minutes (and after their brutal secondary, too). After all this, I felt really crappy about the whole thing but was secretly hoping that maybe it was just "all in my mind" and that in the end maybe davis didn't hate me as much as it seemed--but I wasn't even waitlisted--I was outright rejected. Honestly, I think my experience was probably a unique one and yours will most likely be better. I do not mean to sound excessively bitter--it just felt awful for me.
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This school is a great place to be. They focus on making you relax and getting to know you as an individual. There was much emphasis on becoming not only a great physician, but a great person overall.
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UC Davis is an amazing institution that is a central player in the health of the Northern CA region. I have a bias, as I was a UC Davis undergraduate. Overall, interview day is laid-back and informative, and the new Dean of Admissions--Dr. Amerish Bera--is the man. My day was a little hectic, however. It started off at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento where I had a faculty interview. I then had to jet back to Davis in 30 minutes for my student interview with a second-year student. From experience, 30 minutes isn't always enough time to commute from Davis to Sacramento (so I was a little late for my second interview). Overall, the UC Davis Medical Center is an amazing central hub in Northern CA and the free student-run clinics are very admirable!
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even with all the negatives, i still can't say this school is bad. it is a UC, so it is a highly desirable school.
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It's probably the most laid back interview I have had. No tough questions. What was kind of strange was my student interviewer and I went to the cafeteria, and she did not get lunch. So it was just me eating while she was trying to interview me, so for a sec it was kinda strange. I ended up not really eating and just talking... but then I was starving later. Besides, that it was awesome. My faculty interviewer was the nicest guy ever, we ended up talking about Art and stuff that I had done in undergrad.
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Very long and tiring...my interviewers seemed tired too, so that sucked a lot of energy out of me...Dr. Bera is kind of leading the group of interviewees (about 10 of you) throughout the day with orientation and then closing meeting...very nice man with a lot of inspirational messages...what else...I think the best part of the experience is when you look around the school in your down time and find some students to hang out with. Everyone there seems to be very happy with life at Davis, so that is AWESOME.
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7:30am orientation, then faculty interview, tour (all in Sacramento), head to Davis for student interview and lunch, closing with dean. They try to make it low stress but, guess what, medical school interviews are a big deal and your first one (as this was for me) are somewhat stressful by nature.
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Overall, the day went really well. The students seemed really happy and enjoyed their time at the school. The student run clinics were neat. Dr. Bera and the rest of the staff really try to put you at ease. Friendly place that I would definitely consider attending if accepted.
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Everyone is Great! Dr. Bera and the gen surgery team that is helping out this year is very accomodating and Terri is just the best. This school has a warm and homey feel to it, but also a very professional and intense setting.
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The people at UCD-SOM were friendly and chill; a lot of the students are older, which was appealing to me since I'm an older, non-traditional student; a lot of the students who spotted our interview group walking around campus approached us and offered to answer any questions, which I though was a good indication of how happy and supportive the students were; I had hoped that I would be interviewed by both a med student and faculty, but only got the faculty interview and that lasted about 3 hrs, forcing me to miss the tour of the medical center in Sac-town
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My interviewer went over a list of questions he was given to ask me. After that, we talked about his research for a little bit. So, its a good idea to learn about your interviewer (via the Internet, etc.) before your interview. Besides this, I was not asked a single question about anything on my application.
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I had a very nice interview, everyone there was very nice and laid back, but maybe a bit too much of the later, I didn't really get much of a chance to learn about Davis because the organized program was so brief.
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The best so far!!!!
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The students that I met weren't overly optimistic about the school. In fact, they had many negative things to say. But it was good to get a realistic depiction of what the education at Davis was going to be like. I still like Davis for some of its good qualities. My interview was sincere and was concerned about my interview day being thorough and generally a good experience.
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Standard, low stress interview. Good school that can stimulate my mind but can also manage to massage it to mush with its blandness.
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relaxed, simple, straightforward, no bullshit. seriously, the school is great. the education is superb. there are so many oppourtunities there. but somehow, my overall feeling was of mediocracy, even though i know that objectively, the school is fab. i think that their low-key approach kind of works against them - i don't remember any of the interview questions since they were all so non-challenging, and not thought provoking. this was very nice. my interview day was nice. everything about uc davis was nice. i left the school craving an edge. hauled butt back to san francisco for some city grit and grime. too many nice people make me feel jaded.
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Overall - try to take in everything around you and not stress out so much. They try to pair you with an interviewer who has similar interests/backgrounds and minority status as you so you feel more comfortable in the interview setting. The schedule for the day was: an orientation, then sat in on a lecture, then tour of med school, then lunch with med students, then interviews, then tour of med center in Sacramento. Also - Davis has interviews really late in the year (until May!) so don't worry if you haven't heard from them in a long while.
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So I know that Davis has a standard list of questions that they give to the interviewer (we were even told so in the orientation), but my interviewer didn't ask me any of them. He didn't ask any ethics-based questions or anything like that -- there was no question that could have had a "wrong" answer. We pretty much just had a conversation. He asked about my family, my college, my research experiences, my time abroad, etc. It was very low stress. I had worried earlier that I was under-prepared, but there wasn't anything I could have been more prepared for. All in all, it was a pretty good experience. I also liked the students I met there -- they seemed pretty laid back, not at all like the competitive, intense, constantly stressed pre-meds that I too often meet.
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A few questions were about things on my AMCAS app and secondary, which were standard. Otherwise the whole interview was very conversational and laid back. We covered quite a diversity of topics in our conversations, none of which I ever expected to talk about in a med school interview. This was a refreshing change from other interviews. My interviewer was very nice and knew my application thoroughly. Overall a positive experience and my top choice for medical school.
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Largely enjoyable due to the great atmosphere and interesting, talented students. A little rough around the edges, with student interviews being canceled partway through the year due to lack of volunteering third and fourth years to conduct them. Overall, a strong school with numerous options for enrichment outside of the curriculum.
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Very laid back day and easy interview to get through (standard interview questions are used).
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The admissions director gives you a 60 min. talk on the school, and goes through a very well prepared packet of information. (Take my advice, and if he tells you to read something read it; it helped me so much during my interview, because my interviewer was featured several times in the reading material we were given.) Afterwards, we sat in on the last few minutes of a 1st year class which was very well done, the professor was funny (he even got applause at the end of his lecture). Everyone was very laid back and had great rapport with the professor. Then we had lunch with several 1st year students; which was great because they gave us honest answers to our questions, and were very interesting people, and extremely friendly. What really impressed me was that students who weren't originally scheduled to meet with us came up anyway and introduced themselves and offered to answer questions for me, or to e-mail them questions later. After lunch, we got a brief tour from the med students (there are only 3 buildings, and we had already been in 2, so there was only 1 left at that point). Then we went off to our separate interviews. I lucked out, mine was in Sacramento, so I got to visit the medical center. (FYI: I didn't rent a car, so I just got lucky getting rides from the hotel I stayed in, and getting a ride to Sacramento with another interviewee. There is public transportation, but you have to do the leg work to find it and navigate it. They didn't readily provide much information on public transport, and they shuttle that runs from UC Davis to Sacramento only goes once an hour, so if you miss it, you're screwed if you don't have excess time. So my advice is, if you can rent a car, or have a friend drive you because it is really hard to get around without it.) My interviewer was excellent and we had a lot to talk about because I am currently working in palliative care, and he runs the palliative care division at the medical center; so I really felt that the admissions group really made an effort to pair me up with someone that has similar interests. Once you are done with the interview you are done for the day. I arrived there at 10:30am and my interview wasn't until 3pm, and their lecture and student tour only lasts till about 1:30pm at the latest, so you usually end up with time to kill, so bring a book, and read the materials they give you.
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not stressful. The very typical: ask you some questions about yourself, then some "canned questions" about your "qualities".
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Relaxed
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Positive
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I loved UC Davis and feel so lucky to be going there! All I can say is that this school offers that small town feel with a QUALITY education...a perfect fit for me. Good luck everyone!
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The interview was surprisingly low stress. I had read about the list of ethical questions that interviewers are asked to pick from, but wasn't sure which ones to expect. There really are no right or wrong answers to these questions, they just want to see how we think. Just be yourself during the interview and try to answer the questions as honestly as you possibly can. The medical school facilities at UC Davis are definitely not the state of the art, but the Sacramento campus is quite impressive. The students have a genunie camaraderie amongst themselves and they have a great rapport with the faculty. UC Davis has a hight standard of education delivered in a collegial and supportive academic environment. The students are given many helpful learning resources and also have access to excellent tutors. A note of caution to anyone coming in from out of town: the student host list that is included in the interview invitation may not be current. I tried unsuccessfully to get a host; I kept calling and emailing people, but hardly anyone responded. It might be a better idea to book a room at a nearby hotel, and then try to meet as many students as possible during the interview day (there's a lot of downtime).
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I really liked Davis - had a good atmosphere. I wish more students were around so that I could get a feel for the student body. They seem very open to having families in med school. Davis seems like a great place to go to med school and the early clinical experiences are impressive. Luckily my interview was in the morning so I left after lunch. The other interviewees had interviews after lunch. The interview was long - over an hour.
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i really liked this interview a lot. it wasn't too laid back that you wouldn't know how you did or anything, but it wasn't too difficult that you would feel depressed.
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The overall experience was great. Mr. Dagang's talk was very informative and he answered all of our questions. I liked the fact that we were only 5 to interview so it felt more comfortable and less intimidating. Great school but the Admissions Office could use some renovations.
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It was a very mellow interview, really just a conversation to get to know you. It seems the questions are used over and over. If you read all the feedback on this site and get familiar with the questions, you should be fine. Overall, it was a very good day and confirmed that Davis is my top choice due to its community medicine emphasis.
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It was by far the best interview experience I have had out of all the interviews I have gone to. This has easily jumped to my top 3 schools that I would attend if they accept me.
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really nice place. i think i could be happy at davis. they are all about personal attention. there was only three of us interviewing on my interview day...compared to the 20-30 i've had at other schools, you know they put a lot of time and energy into really poring over the secondaries so they don't waste your time going into the interview.
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the day started at 10:30 with an orientation by ed dagang. i've heard him speak many times before on campus so i wasn't suprised by his slightly condescending way of talking. there were only 6 of us interviewing and i was the only one that had gone to davis for undergrad. the med students didn't show up to have lunch with us or give us the tour, which is not a big deal because the davis med school campus is all of 3 buildings, really. i had one interview at 1 with a doctor on campus. he had a list of questions to ask, mostly standard questions, a couple of the scenarios (two patients in the ICU, if your're a doctor on a plane and someone has a heart attack). but mostly a really relaxed interview. my second interview wasn't until 5 at UCDMC (lucky for me i still live in davis so i went home in between). expect that you'll have a lot of down time during the day and DON'T book your flight before 8 if you're flying in. the student interview was very casual, she was very nice and only asked a few standard questions and then we just chatted for a while. overall a really good interview day.
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I had an awesome time. Davis is now one of my top choices. The students and faculty are so friendly and generous. Everyone loves it there. The pass/fail system in the first 2 years also seems to contribute to the non-competitive, laid-back environment.
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Really great. The faculty interviewer was very nice and a great person. The student interviewer was really fun and laid-back. I love this school. Definitely my top pick.
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Wow, I never expected this much from Davis but now I'm totally psyched about it! I think the best thing about it is the people.
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I arrived at 8:30 and had a 30-minute talk session, followed by student interview. I walked around the campus and then went to the Sacramento med school for my faculty interview and hospital tour. Both interviews had a list of questions to go from-- leadership (delegating or doing), an ethics question, motivation for medicine, impression of the school, and the like. They do send out acceptances even this late in the season, though you still have to wait 6-8 weeks (ie: mid June) to find out.
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Overall, the experience was very stress free. The area around davis is safe, suburban yet modern. The medical school could use a little remodeling, but other than that I really liked the school.
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U.C. Davis has everything that I am looking for in a good medical school, it provides a good affordable education. All the students seem happy. Best advice to give about the interview process is just to be "yourself".
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This seems to be an excellent program in a very small town. It is very inexpensive, and the students are very friendly.
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Most of the applicants who were there had interviews in the morning. Between your interviews, you can attend lecture if you like. The hospital tour is in the late afternoon. Apparently none of the other applicants were interested in trecking over to Sacramento to go on the hospital tour. I would recommend driving since the school is separate from the medical center. The facilities at the med school appear outdated (from the 1970s) although the hospital is quite up to date and quite impressive.
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I was really impressed with the student clinics. I did not mind the 20 minute drive between the med schoool and the Medical Center in Sacramento. I can appreciate that there is not lots to do in Davis, since maintaining academic focus will be crucial, but social life is something to consider.
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Great. Relax it is so low key.
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It was a great experience...everyone was really nice and very helpful. Plenty of information was given and they were very open to questions.
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My interview went very well. Both interviews were low-key, and the interviewers were easy to talk to.
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Very very warm and highly appealing student body. I felt right at home, everybody was just so focused and relaxed at the same time. Anybody would like the school.
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Solid Experience. A little more probing (in-depth) than I thought it would be, but the stress level was fairly low. Getting between the Medical Center in Sacramento and the Davis Teaching Facility can be a little tricky.
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It was a very relaxed day. The student interviewer and faculty interviewer were both extremely kind and fun to talk to. All of the students and staff were very friendly and it seems that the staff and faculty really care about their students.
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Pretty nice interview day. Didn't see any other applicants which was weird. It would be nice to spend more time with actual students and less time with Mr Dagang. Again you'll probably need a car to drive yourself from Sac-town to Davis for your interviews.
What are your suggestions for the admissions office?
Applicants commonly suggest that the admissions office should provide interview information earlier, be more responsive to communication, address special dietary needs, improve the electronic application system, and ensure staff are polite and helpful in all interactions. Additionally, they recommend better organization for interview day logistics and clearer communication about the interview process.
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Keep up the great work!
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Please send out interview info earlier. It makes it difficult for people from out of state to plan the host program and an extra day for the student run clinic. Thankfully I flew Southwest and was able to change my flight without charge.
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Tell us ahead of time that we don't need to bring any notepad for the interview; and that water and tissues are supplied for us throughout the entire interview. If I had known, i would be less stressed (I have allergy so running nose is a big deal for me!!)
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Need to be more responsive to email and phone call questions/requests. They are very friendly in person, but difficult to reach/receive feeback/answers over phone and email. Frustratingly so.
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Request food preferences for applicants with special dietary needs
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The finanical aid office was very rude. I asked a question in an email - I got a single response back which was "Yes." With no other explanations. I understand they must get the question over and over again - but it is their job, and they should get polite people to work in their office, if they want their school to be represented well. We only got information about the interview < 1 week prior to the interview, but several things (visits to clinics, stay with medical students) required 1 week prior notice. Further, the visits to clinic option was poorly organized. The parking/directions map was missing from the slide show (empty placeholder), which was sent to interviewees (and an email request for the map/directions was not returned). They required using a cumbersome message web portal for communication. The web portal didn't work on mobile devices. Why not just use email? This is what email was invented for.
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Were difficult to deal with over the phone and through email. However, very nice in person.
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Talk more about the curriculum and how it is different from other schools
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The electronic application system still has several kinks that need to be resolved.
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Don't tell interviewees that they will be there until 5pm. The interview day is over by 2pm.
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Be nice. Provide parking validation or permits for applicants.
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Electronic issues are no excuse for sending out e-mails cancelling interviews just a few days before
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The new electronic process....
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The lady who answered my call inquiring about the interview result was mean. I did not want to call
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